Hypnotic folk ambience, reflecting into waves of the alternative. Midlight are a band who aren’t sticking to pop rules.
Working at your craft to the point which supplies an air of mystery. Branching away from the confines of social media rules. Hiding your sound from the world for years. Truly understanding what you want to make. And then having a name your listeners may mis-spell on the first Google search. Midlight. Hypnotic. Cosmic. Folk ambience. An identification to the alternative. Conveyed gently to the listener. Not sticking to pop rules is what everyone loves to read and hear.
Pandemonium, the second self-release to come out of the DIY built studio in Brixton. Released on the 11th December, alongside, limited edition 7” records of the band’s first two singles. Their debut single ‘Sink to the Level’ released earlier this year sent waves on BBC Radio 6 music. An ambient track with subtle melodies. One that has created a distinctive sound, a feel of mayhem amongst the tranquil.
Midlight, a four-piece band, born out of Brighton, started out with after-school writing sessions in the drummer’s bedroom. Owen Beesley, on drums, George Ireland providing vocals, guitar and piano. With Isaac Squires on lead guitar and Ollie Turvey playing bass and piano. The sound itself if built around lead singer George Ireland's song writing. Reflective lyrics softened with delicate melodies and hectic percussion. The past year has been spent sewing together their home studio whilst playing around London’s mad array of gigs.
Their latest track, Pandemonium, a charming ambience that is levelled by a deep forest mood. Music often opens up a certain atmosphere and feeling. And that’s exactly what this tune does. Shaking with rhythm where percussion is blasting from either side of my speakers. A key sense of time and being in the moment. Organic and fuelled by nature. As if the band has gone up close to all corners of the forest to hone in on the deep dark sounds within.
It doesn’t sound like something you’d hear from a DIY studio. Yet, that is the case. It’s so professional. It's lifelike. To the point you begin to question, this is what the band may be live. And if this is what the track sounds like, it will be even better at a gig. Having been together for over ten years, you get the sensation that they are a really in tune group of friends. Understanding each other and what they want to sound like. It’s very impressive, showing their scale of ability in the few tracks they've released.
Being able to groove along to a track in a slow way that feels natural and untouched. A song that is produced as though it has simply been grown from the ground. As technology has developed, and the ability to make something brilliant out of your bedroom has arisen. Bands like Midlight have been born from that pot of musicians. However, making something that is so precise yet so under-the-surface obscure. It's impressiveness rockets it to another level.
Compelling vocals that swift into the beat of the song. The space without is full of notes. Charming chords and mesmerising counterpoints. Every guitar line spins in feedback. As delays find themselves sneaking into the demanding drum solo. Without an obvious chorus you melt into every angle of the tune. You can pick apart the soft melodies and the unhurried guitar strumming. Backing vocals that just shadow the drumming, pulling you in throughout the song. A sense of beauty with this swirling, unhinged tune. Delivering a quicker pace as the vocals pick-up. Vocals which almost fade away with the drumming, lifting louder and louder. Sound effects that cause magnetic churning beats. Making you continuously think on what the band are trying to communicate. A calming uproar churning havoc with a sense of earthy emotion. You get a lot from one tune, which I find myself listening to over and over again. Underestimating the powerful lyrics, they almost seem lost within the instrumentals. Fantastically melting away just to lift again with the erratic drumming and bold bass line.
It’s not just the song, it’s the cover artwork too. Artwork almost seems forgotten in tracks these days due to the limitations of digital. There was always a proudness and sense of pure creativity on the cover. And there's a feeling of that too in this EP. The swirling obedience in the track doesn’t stop there. An oceanic pit of blue, white, green, a sea of pandemonium. A painting that feels like the track. A man who finds himself lost in the ocean of confusion. With a small advertisement of the track and band in the right-hand corner. The focus on the cover isn’t lost, it looks how the song sounds. Mesmerising you as if it's a 2020 version of a Jimi Hendrix album cover. The modern psychedelia.
It’s all of this that creates a never-ending pull toward the track. A constant mesmerising crater of emotions. An electrifying feel of the 60s Carnaby all the way up to 80s alternative. You feel very present in this track. Musicians who combine waves and crevasses of nature with electronic beats. Taking you in and out of the track with a clear line of indie within the song. They are effortless with timing, not just within the track but what the song stands for. Music leans into what it means to us as individuals. And we connect with how the band wanted us to feel. And this track reclines into a feeling of falling, a manic rush of time and intensity of connection. Understanding on what’s going on around you. Yet being lost and found again.
You’re unhinged into the song and the vocals are reminiscent to a feeling of letting go. Midlight are a band who are in tune with what they want and a defined sound to go along with.
Listen to the tune now...
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Website: www.midlighthq.com