Midlake - Milkmaid Grand Army EP

TRACKLISTING:

1. She Removes Her Spiral Hair

2. Paper Gown

3. Excited But Not Enough

4. I Lost My Bodyweight In The Forest

5. Simple

6. Roller Skate (Farewell June)

7. Golden Hour

OVERVIEW: Re-issue of fabulous early EP from Midlake

Midlake reintroduces the EP that first got people talking about this Texan band -- "Milkmaid Grand Army," a seven-song EP that was released by them in 2001, and sold out quickly. Rather than the poignant Grandaddyish sound of their three full-length albums, this EP explores a different kind of folk-rock -- infused with heavy fuzz.

It opens with the blurry, psychedelic swirls of "She Removes Her Spiral Hair," which is a heated duel between cycling guitars and sixties-style electric organ. Tim Smith glides through it like a drunken Mark Linkous, wistfully murmuring that "sometimes the starlight, sometimes the starlight disappears..." Things get a bit less wonky over the next few songs: slow-moving, mournful/hopeful folk, and staccato guitar-rock laced with sweeps of fuzzy, effervescent synth. There's also some half-obscured piano pop that is so heavily soaked in fuzz that you can hardly identify what the music is made of. In the final round of songs, Midlake gets an even firmer grip on this older style: psychedelic piano balladry, fuzzed-out bells that blossom into rollicking indie pop, and finishing up with the poignant, lo-fi murmurs of "Golden Hour." It's a pretty ending

Every good band expands their sound with time, and Midlake is no exception -- they used the psychfolk approach to their first album, and injected a bit more rock into their second, and folk into their third. But turn back the clock, and you'll find them sounding very different in their first release.

Midlake has explored use of fuzz before, but in "Milkmaid Grant Army" they soak every song in it. Fortunately they don't neglect their oft-used instrumentation, such as rippling synth over solid piano, drums and guitars, and rollicking tunes mixed in with bittersweet folk. The instrumentation always sounds a little off... deliberately. But all that fuzz adds an otherworldly vibe to Smith's voice, which already sounded kind of out-there. He croons through some songs, blurs through others, and generally sounds like a sad folkie surrounded by swirling skies and girls with "spiral hair," starlight and other clever, evocative images. This is definitely worth checking out, both on its own merits and to see where Midlake started from.

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