a perfect life with a view of the swamp

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Oh...oh. That... is... impressive. Well. And I met a Miocene man on the train a year or so ago: fare-dodging the Overground eastwards curving along the top of London. He was all right and we had a bloody good long chat about music - good music - and he talked about this album they were hard working on, and how they were violently pissed off with coward metal, how they didn't give a toss and were going to do what they REALLY wanted this time (and I thought, yep, that one again). And he talks about what music he's into and he's agreeing with my pigheaded old mantra of 'uncommercial is the new commercial, go weird, etc' and he's saying: we're already there... the memory is hazy but I'm sure he mentioned Aphex Twin and real drum 'n bass and a few prog things like he knew what he was talking about, in a manner that made me pay an increasing amount of attention. Said something about DIY and underground culture like he meant it; something determined and impressive cut through his laid back manner.

 

Then I had to get off at Camden or somewhere, and Miocene man carried on to do something seedy in delightful Homerton. And that was that, just another nice musician bumped into, but the vibe if not the details stuck in my head. And now, this. Blimey - a band that keeps its promises. And beyond. Sorry, I just did not take Miocene man's beautiful claims of adventure and true cross-pollination and sweet influences seriously. I should have.

 

This is one hell of an album. This is one hell of a statement: a year zero. This is what you long to hear every time you put a new record on. Balls. Integrity. Art. Zeitgeist. And it rocks, always a bonus. This works on so many levels, its hard to know where to start. It's deeply, densely complex in a way that the ear can grasp; it hints at the attitude and vibe of London's true invisible underground; its taken on board that and the burgeoning glitch/electronoise/rock culture; it's goes more places musically that most film soundtracks; it's as progressive as it gets; it's seamless, bringing these elements together in a way that can only be the result of a bunch of musicians living and breathing the influences.

 

I don't think you could create more suitable music for this moment in time and space. This is a London sound, the sound of anger, of the awake finally burning up through the dead weight of apathy. 'A Perfect Life With A View Of The Swamp' is a massive work, a shut-in-a-studio-for-two-years kind of work that's somehow not self-indulgent, but self-aware. Necessary. Needed. And so musically accomplished, but playing these dense, super-changeable riffs, embedded in songs with just the right level of change vs repetition: enough repetition to hook you in, enough change to keep your brain alert.

 

Time to haul out the comparisons: Tool, for a start, but better. More adventures, more sounds, changes. Let's mention the superb production, preserving the ever-changing textures, a vital part of the energy... A little Dillinger Escape Plan and Sikth, in a few dollops; Goldie, Roni Size, Talvin Singh but darker, (no doubt anonymous sounds on a late night pirate station); computer games, the Fight Club soundtrack; a Hammond, delivered in a Van Der Graaf style... so much stuff in there.... System Of A Down, glitched-out... The Streets, or maybe that unbelievably good rapping those gangs of kids do on the station after Carnival... the soundtrack is already out there.

Miocene have ears, they've picked up things, and wrapped them in dark pathos, highs and lows, trains of thought, real emotions. Miocene are the opposite of complacency. And 'A Perfect Life...' is the prefect statement for right now, forget everything you think you know about Miocene, they just dropped a very important album, a very big album, music is progressing on a weekly basis, they went out past 65DaysOfStatic and made a real prog rock album, they made one of the best albums you’ll have heard in ages and ages…..

 

 


 


 

 

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