a perfect life with a view of the swamp

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oli warwick

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METAL, like most contemporary guitar music, is in something of a rut.

 

It's all been done before and, as a knee-jerk reaction to the explosion of electronic music, all but a few refuse to look forward.

 

While most bands feared that drum machines and the like would take the place of musicians, Pitchshifter and others sought to use these new tools to do things that humans couldn't do.

 

The problem was that they still weren't quite sure what to do with this whole new area of sound to explore. Thank goodness, then, for Miocene.

 

Their debut album, A Perfect Life With a View of the Swamp - a loving tribute to London - is not so much a breath of fresh air as a sonic tornado of dizzying time signatures, needle-sharp riffs and frenzied electronics, lunging aggressively into uncharted territory without trying to hold onto the rails.

 

The London-based band have come a long way since their debut EP Refining the Theory, released back in 2000.

 

Cellular Memory in 2002 made Miocene stick out like a sore thumb among their contemporaries such as Lost Prophets and Hundred Reasons.

 

The success of those bands drove them to release a brooding, fiercely underground record of epic tracks fuelled by jazz, hip-hop and drum'n'bass.

 

As singer Ben claims, "it definitely made us realise that we could go off in our own direction and still be able to release records."

 

What that EP promised, the album, finally released this year, delivers.

 

The more straight-up rock songs spiral from their point of origin until you forget where it started, evoking Pink Floyd at their finest.

 

Then, without warning, they plunge you into an intense junglist workout that even the most amphetamine-riddled raver wouldn't be able to keep up with.

 

And next in the pipeline is a remix project featuring the likes of jazz-metal nutters SikTh being let loose on some of the album tracks, as well as side a project exploring drum'n'bass.

 

Yet more examples of the unconventional path that Miocene are choosing to tread.

Who knows where it will lead them, but it'll be bloody interesting finding out.

 

 


 


 

 

(c) & (p) 2005 www.miocene.org & www.danielemile.co.uk