*. Midlake .*

Album: Bamnan and Slivercork (2001)(Reissue 2004)
Genre: Prog Folk (Acoustic/Chamber Folk/Alternative)  /  USA

In retrospect, for a person who got introduced to Midlake with the pastoral, warm log cabin rock journey of The Trials of Van Occupanther, the band's debut can come off as quite baffling. Gone are the gentle strings and flutes, the warm acoustic guitars and blissful backing vocal harmonies. Instead Bamnan and Slivercork is crammed full of fuzzy analogue keyboards, lo-fi synths and at times almost mechanically played drum beats. Instead of the tales of the lives and hardships of 1800's settlers and pioneers, Tim Smith's stories offers character studies of eccentrics trapped in some fantasyland where technology works in the most quirkiest ways and the ubiquitous monocle men roam the valleys with their half-orb carts, not letting anyone off their sights. Bamnan's special quality however is that it still has the same wonderful warmth Trials had - a trait that seems to be a key signature of Midlake - but in a vastly different form. The soft, gentle textures exist but are lost in the labyrinthine factories and science labs the lyrics portray: wrapped in synthetic elements of the music. Take "Balloon Maker" for example: strip it down and you've got a song that you could have found on Trials, rich in vocal harmonies and so forth. Then layer that core with countless keyboards, synthetic-sounding horns and yet more keyboards, resulting in such a thick texture that there's no space left in the sound. The result is brilliant. And that density in sound is where Bamnan's general brilliance lies in. The layered sound, mixed with the fuzziness of the overall production, the robotic rhythm section (the drumming on the album is generally brilliant) and the quirky, oddball lyrics creates a mixture that sounds like its own. Smith's melodic and weary vocals, eternally given up and submitting to his own fate in tone, adds a human touch to the synthetic music. Bamnan works in this so well that it becomes a part of the rare breed of albums where the atmosphere is so thick it can't help but sweep the listener away in some fantasy world for the duration of the album. It's strong enough to cover some of the flaws in songwriting - while certain tracks raise to the heights of absolute and undeniable brilliance ("Balloon Maker", "Some of Them Were Superstitious", "Kingfish Pies", "Mopper's Medley" to name the greatest moments), some aren't too exciting: "I Guess I'll Take Care" only picks up during its latter half and "The Jungler" is particularly inmemorable. Neither however feel like total failures as the sound gimmick of the whole album transforms them to be an equal part of the narrative - slightly clumsier moments, but fitting nonetheless. Which, overall, turns Midlake into a remarkably curious band that has managed to make two completely different yet distinguishably similar album, and turns Bamnan & Slivercork one of the most intriguing - and generally best - debuts of the decade. Review by "FlintGF" (Rate Your Music).

RATING:  7.75 / 10

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