Label: Tranlinguistic Other Records
Review by Matteo Bussotti
“The Current” is the latest release from the American, psychedelic band Midday Veil. And we all pretty much already figured it out already. Now, let’s get down to business. This album is really intriguing. I, as a drummer, immediately noticed the strange tempos (they’re not impossible tempos, but at lest they’re not all the usual 4/4 ), which give the songs a strange, catchy vibe. The other instruments all add to the psychedelic atmosphere of this CD, making each song “full” (I can’t find a better way to describe it. Each song fulfills your senses, and has the right amount of instruments and sounds in it, without resulting redundant) and a real trip for your ears (Like the second track, an instrumental 6-minute-ride with a semi-greek title: “Choreia” ).
The strength in Midday Veil stands in this, in my opinion: they know what to do and when to do it. With psychedelic music, it’s really easy to lose yourself into strange sounds, melodies, useless riffs and embellishments just to give the song the “lysergic” feeling. Midday Veil are strangers to all of this: what they do, they do it for a reason. The result is an album with songs extremely interesting and entertaining, which you’ll listen more (more and more and more ) than once, passing from a more “classic” psychedelic rock one (“The Current”) to a more “sci-fi” one (“Sun Stone”, which kinda reminds me of the work of Vangelis for “Blade Runner”) with ease, and remaining coherent with the tone of the album.
Also, the vocals are haunting, clean and powerful at the same time, adding that extra touch to the whole album which simply makes it beautiful. The best thing about Emily‘s voice, though, is that it isn’t always there: she sings when the songs most requires it, she just doesn’t add random “ooohs” and “aaaahs” to create atmosphere, she comes in at the best moment, and with clean, powerful vocals. Excellent. You totally cannot fall in love with this release and I hope Midday Veil will keep getting better and better. The sounds, the lyrics, the perfect balance of everything and the technical abilities of all the musicians. We need more albums like this. All the praises to Midday Veil!
Rating – 85/100
Tracklist
- The Current
- Choreia
- Remember Child
- Without and Within
- Sun Stone
- Great Cold of the Night
Line Up
- Emily Pothast – Vocals, Synths & Percussions
- David Golightly – Synths
- Timm Mason – Guitars
- Jayson Kochan – Bass
- Sam Yoder – Percussion
- Chris Pollina – Drums