CORNISH post-rock/shoegaze/post-rock trio Mildred Maude really are the coming men, with their first album for the excellent Sonic Cathedral out tomorrow and a tour to follow.
The intersection of guitarist Matt, drummer Louie and bassist Lee is a bloody beautiful noise in the live arena and, it transpires, fully over the four tracks of their new album, Sleepover. The label note in their publicity for this latest single drop that they produce “Sound, articulated and hammered and welded to make your world bigger and your eyes much, much wider” – and I won’t disagree, since I wrote just that in our review of the album, which you can read here.
“Chemo Brain” is slightly the odd one out on ab album full of guitar odyssey, and clocks in with change from three minutes; its named for a side effect of bassist Lee’s cancer treatment, which led to sudden mental blocks; you can watch the video below.
It comes at you from a place where first-album Swervedriver or even maybe, Medicine, don really battered Converse, soles hanging off, pump gas and hang with Thurston. You can imagine him or Lee Ranaldo maybe bringing a riff of this scouring melodious nature to the Dirty sessions, for sho’. It’s full of bright sunshine on a dusty gravel track, maybe somewhere in Colorado, maybe somewhere the back of Pendeen with the gorse in full flower.
And, aha! here’s the thing: obtain Sleepover on wax, and this track concludes side A on a locked groove, so you get to rejoice in the riffin’ until, conceivably, the heat death of the universe. Two minutes fifty-odd or much, much longer.
Obvs, they’re on tour in support of this record; with a short hop around the UK beginning on Saturday in their hometown of Falmouth, the dates being as follows – click through on the venue for tickets:
Saturday, October 23rd, Falmouth, Woodlane Social Club;
Sunday, October 24th, Manchester, The Peer Hat;
Tuesday, October 26th, Glasgow, The Hug And Pint;
Wednesday, October 27th, London, The Social;
Friday, October 29th, Nottingham, Rough Trade, and
Saturday, October 30th, Birkenhead, Future Yard.
Buy tickets, if guitars thrill you. Like all the best live bands of the moment (Squid, Oh Sees, Low) Mildred Maude are a whole different ballgame live, but expect the album to be in there somewhere.
“Our shows always consist of motifs and ideas that have come out of previous gigs or recordings,” says Matt, “so even though we perhaps won’t directly be playing the songs, parts of them will emerge during our live shows, which is quite an organic approach to touring an album like this.”
Mildred Maude’s Sleepover is out this Friday, October 22nd digitally, on cassette and on vinyl; flex your PayPal at Sonic Cathedral or Rough Trade have a squeakingly limited (250) exclusive green vinyl pressing; there’s red, too; but sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings the clear splatter has long been snapped up. The noise is still glorious, though. And that’s the important part.
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