Midas Fall | Evaporate | Monotreme Records
Release date: April 27th 2018
Review by Jenna Dreisenstock
Hands clasped in royal blue; the kindness of unseeing mist, sleeping in palms. Of caverns within and the cold grey, phantasm bodies as stalagmites. Reverberation in effect-soaked bloom, emerald green pines in the howling tremolo gust. Melody in the fragile of dark and heavy slumber; classically progressive, delicately urgent.
The taut pull of heartstrings sting in the chill; waveforms in splendor, in sadness and ferocity – building mountains on the backs of spectres: the fullness of the auditory journey, sound in theatric hallucination. Both in power and fragility, the haunting electronic post-rock duo Midas Fall sing the light through stained glass windows; a brilliant scintillation in radiance held firmly in the clutch of the gothic church pews. Formed by Scottish duo Elizabeth Heaton and Rowan Burn, Midas Fall’s fourth studio album Evaporate builds a storybook introspection; an affirming darkness in their own visceral lore, a world cataclysmic in its loving allure. Bending genres in fragile assertion, Midas Fall sculpt a ravishingly angelic seascape of notable personality; twinkling post-rock mirages seamlessly caress elements of synth-wave, interwoven delicately with the gloaming of gothic melancholy.
Twilight-delicate in deliverance, a soft chill of melodic keys chimes through; ‘Bruise Pusher’ opens in elegant harmony, doldrums in shimmering atmosphere. The sultry angelic ghosts of Heaton’s vocals caress in reverberation; a glittering wound, the bloom of a gentle cacoon. Evolution liberated in heavy distortion, a minor key heart-break; gothic heaviness of powerful chords, struck, in ferocious chill. An otherworldly cry rings spectral, a breathing, raw being; steady in the cavern echo of pounding toms. The progression to a spark of melodic radiant in dance, Heaton’s siren-song in electronic pulsation. A breakaway in tone, the haze of fervent distorted guitar grins in gothic melancholia. The stun in beauty of a howling tremolo builds to climactic foreboding; ever driven, walls of texture confident in the mesmer of night-sky sound, the overwhelm of emotive post-rock sparking in dance of electronic timbre.
An exploration in world-building, the folklore of visceral experience in ‘Solveraine’ traverses the ambience of a haunting world with Heaton’s vocals in moonlit-spotlight. An introduction in gentle cry, the growth and evolve of a loving cello, soul-stun in the blackness. The soulful gleaming of a plucked melody soothes, amongst Heaton’s vocals in the engulf of a fantasy soundscape. Tender drum-roll in percussive timbre, a passionate dimension in mirage; the heart gleaming on the sleeve in vocal introspection. A foundation in tone, built in expressive post-rock desolation; beauty and tinge of 80s-esque influence as Heaton’s vocals grow in haunting glory, a tone stunningly similar to the likes of Cocteau Twins vocalist Elizabeth Fraser. The raw echo of theatric tremolo gazing inward, the tenderly soaked beat beneath guitars in overdrive. The cello in mystic collaboration, a delay in celestial vocal tone amost subtle stars of glitch. The delicate combination of genres built in classical divine, the nostalgia of modest synth and emotive nature of post-rock sings in a cacophony of spectral aura.
A softness in the shining light; an introduction lullaby draws us into ‘Glue’, a sting in the gloaming of the heart accompanied by sincerity in keys lulls forth; honeyed upbeat of electronic break through in a harmonious glitch, a percussive beat dotted with the lyrical soul of a golden melody sung in the sadness of guitar strings. An experiment of the ghostly soundscape; growth in auditory texture, a new world in the purity of each added sound. A gentle sway into the roll of drums, a raw greeting of power in moon-cycle of cello and proud guitars; backed into motivation with a steady beat, driving forward in both a sombre and playful tone. The harmonies of spirited guitars wrestle delicately with one another, pairing with Heaton’s melancholia as the track is driven forward in anticipation; a climactic break. A dotted drenched synth urges movement, a build-up the destruction of a silent wall – a breakdown of synth-wave rains in mesmer, an animated tone in juxtaposition; collaging the many parts into the whole. The haze of guitar fuzz in overwhelming glue grows rapidly amongst the overdrive in synth-melody; a remaster of a timbre not unlike spirited 8-bit, a video-game dimension in sorrow and beauty.
An intricately woven sweetness, heartache guitars speak out and flutter with tremolo, an ethereal echo harmony in the isolation of emerald green and seeping forests; “Howling at The Clouds” cloaks a soundscape in woeful bloom. Distorted vision, heavy fuzz overwhelms the being into breathing, the warmth of comfort in sadness. A fall to Heaton’s dreamlike vocals confessing, caressing:
“It’s a long way home…”
Reflective in tone, a formidable heaviness acute in conjunction with the enchanting nature of Heaton’s vocals provoke difficult, liberating moments of introspection. The cacophony of emotions as the reverberation, the delay and speaking in distortion. Breaking through layers of dark ambience into an animated electronic beat; quick and urgent, uplifting in its enthusiasm – merging the melancholia in post-rock melodies with the excitement of synth-wave experimentation and expression. Waves of experimentation in mood, rising and crashing in urgency and glowing woe, continue to break traditional song structures. A feeling all so human, swallowed in a sea of ever building houses and destroying them – a structured chord tempo reminiscient of the slow dark of black-metal, an emergence of the genre’s signature percussive blast; yet unimposing. Gathered into one, the darkness of a soundscape dissolves.
The tender glitter of a starlit bruise cries to the touch in Evaporate – the hypnotic traverse of post-rock and electronica, a loving cacophony of experimental aurora borealis blinding in auditory mesmer; the haunting sadness in twinkling guitars, the wandering ghosts of Heaton’s chilling vocals – a delicate anger in distortion, and a honeyed heartbreak in electronic texture. Evaporate as an album glitters in a full moon engulf, a twilight world built in a seascape of sorrow. Midas Fall embrace the crashing tides in tender flow, shimmering in the radiance of colour and glow; the swaying angler’s light in the dark, an urge to be submerged beneath the blackened waters in stunning liberation. A heaviness to be carried with shimmering pride, a light to be held in our palms and swallowed with ardor; Midas Fall’s kaleidoscopic folklore rings pure in the cold shine of their auditory journey, with Evaporate nestling within the rib-cage and singing soulfully with their heart.
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