»Money's like a night, it's over pretty quick«, is what Wolfgang Möstl used to sing. It's a simple truth, but one everyone has to accept. For a musician like Möstl it must hit close to home: You spend all your time creating new music and touring, proving time and time again that youe not in it for the money. But let's push these worries aside, because they have a positive outcome: Mile Me Deaf are releasing a new album! Möstl again proves his capabilities as both songwriter and sound experimentalist. But let's start at the beginning: »Mile Me Deaf« is a song by good old noise rockers Unwound. As a band name, the pronunciation might throw off non-native speakers: some might fear a »Miami Death«, whatever that may be. But that doesn't really matter: Once people fall for timid Vienna underground icon Wolfgang Möstl's charm, they know the words can only stand for his work. Insiders are obviously aware of all of this already. Since 2004 Möstl is the only constant member of the project, which started as a lo-fi experimental playground of the then 20-year-old singer and guitarist of the late Killed by 9V Batteries. Snippets of that phase are still available on digital compilations. And as often is the case, this solo project turned into a full time band. Together with Florian Seyser (aka Peter T.) and Rudolf Braitenthaller (Dolph), both members of the punk band Sex Jams alongside Möstl himself, he produced the records »Eat Skull« and »Holography«, the latter featuring now Ja, Panik member Laura Landergott. A former side project crawling back into the womb it was once born out of, is a rarer thing though: »Eerie Bits of Future Trips«, the new record is a pure Möstl solo affair - without it being an exercise in regression. Weirdly enough, the record's loud and fuzzy lo-fi character sounds crafted nd detailed, but never overburdened. Compared to Todd Rundgren's classic »Something/Anything?« of 1971, where the established guitarist and pianist Rundgren had to play down to his own dilettante drumming, »Eerie Bits of Future Trips« has everything fall into place. The rhythm keeps rolling, while the guitars howl loudly but are softened by the soft synthesizers. Most of the record was written on the road, parts were even recorded on smartphones and other portable technology. As a matter of fact, nothing on this record was ever played through a regular guitar amp. All the guitar parts are direct input. But even that fact might lead you down a wrong path: Some sounds that seem like guitar are actually samples, distorted voices or synths. The old fairy tale of authentic hand-made rock music is twisted until you don't know which sounds to trust anymore. »Eerie Bits of Future Trips« also might be the darkest album by Mile Me Deaf. It especially noticeable in the beginning of side b. The first songs of the record might give off a vibe of sun glasses and cigarettes (and maybe bubble gum) but the b side starts off with the energetic noise escapades of »Off the Core« and ends with a ten-minute industrial sounding song called »Headnote#1«. The record's opener »Digital Memory File« has Möstl pointing out his greater usage of samples, as sort of a modern day »While My Guitar Gently Weeps«, declaring the song's own artificiality and putting into question the electric guitar's absolutist rule. The hasty sketch, in the form of a digital file, is proclaimed as its own instrument. On the other hand, the record picks up an antiquated medium to render the digital/analogue divide obsolete: The voice sample at the start of »Zodiacs« sings the praises of the almost extinct tape recorder and, as a groove sets in, turns into a dirty loop. The loop as a technique is one of biggest tools of this album, which makes it seem almost meditative or psychedelic at points. Especially on songs like the sluggish »Capable Ride«, with its »Madchester«-like qualities, another song where the sources of the sounds remain a mystery. While Austrian music is often praised for its Austrian-ness, »Eerie Bits of Future Trips« sounds delightfully un-Austrian. But even with all its repetitive qualities, »Future Trips'« flow is not an invitation to drift off. If you do, you might end up unprepared in the dirge of the aforementioned »Off the Core«, or miss hits like the melancholy »Extended Fraud« and »Pose and Move« with its beautiful guitar work. This is obviously not a record to fall asleep to. And even in its darkest moments, the record has an uplifting quality far removed from the rat race of regular employment. It might just make the empty bank account seem not as bad. Because even if the night is over and the money is gone - these songs are still there.