Milieu - The Loneliness Of Empty Roads

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4...according to our Phil on Thu 07 Oct, 2010.

Apparently this is a blues album. Yeah you read that right. Milieu in blues shocker. Well it's been on for a few minutes and it's not really like any blues I've heard before but in concept it is. Here Mr Brian Milieu Grainger is playing a guitar with nothing else, no overdubs or anything. It's just been recorded live to tape. It's just a few single chords and notes which span through 3 tracks over 50 odd minutes. As ever it's got that usual warmth you'd expect and just listening to Milieu again (been a while) is a nice treat. It's super minimal drone music with the odd fluctuation here and there. Not much going on at all but what is there just sucks you in to a whole other world. Lovely stuff!

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Heralding the return of rust-orange days and cool blue nights, Milieu's first new full-length at SSR since 2008 is an elegant and minimal affair. Comprised of three long tracks, all improvised and recorded live to tape with no overdubs, The Loneliness Of Empty Roads sees Brian at the guitar, unaccompanied, driving through the uninhabited backroads and highways of his subconscious. This is a blues album, reduced to single chords and clusters of notes. A live broadcast from an unmappable location to a humming car radio. Power lines and the occasional streetlight pass by, but nothing breaks the monochrome repetition of straight lines, static speeds and the hope of arriving at your destination soon. For those of you still finding your way home, here's one for the road.

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