ALBUM REVIEW: Evaporate – Midas Fall

With a trio of beautiful albums behind them, ambient alt-rock duo MIDAS FALL return with their fourth offering, Evaporate. Having built upon their sound for more than eight years, the band have been on the rise as their music developed. Will this latest album demonstrate growth and expansion in their emotive and unique sound?

For an intro track, MIDAS FALL sure have picked a stunning opener. Bruise Pusher is expensive, filled with a deep sense of longing, it’s a beautiful start to this record. The pitching of the keys and the slight electronic undertones really drive this track, all the while the drums, spaced but constant, keep a very ethereal feel. The combining of ambient resonance and empathic electronic sounds is no easy thing to pull of without a track either feeling too passive in its expression or become too self-indulgent. Here, accompanied by such gorgeous vocals, all that’s created is a sound of honesty and true emotion.

Lifting off with clearer and traditionally contemplative tones, a warm rush of strings introduces title track Evaporate. Infusing into this is another blend of electronic rhythms, tempered drums, high hat sizzling like a snake’s hiss. The deep push of the bass and the synth build up something beautiful and meaningful, MIDAS FALL have something that takes the very dark nature of the ethereal and the danger that something pure can bring in you. Soveraine takes a subtler blend of the electronica and relies more on very sparse keys, guitars and orchestral work. It’s so pensive, relying upon the incredible clarity of the vocals to carry the great weight of this song. Lyrically, it’s just as beautiful to unpack in it’s meaning as it is to soak up the delivery; you’ll be hard pressed to find more honest and truthful voice on another record. Glue very much in the same vein as it’s predecessor, all the while gathering itself up into something bigger, and more laden with yet more symphonic, Gothic sounds. Listening to MIDAS FALL is very much like watching a lightning storm on the horizon. Every layer of sound added creates a tonal painting that blooms in your mind. No listen will create the same mental image but will always delivery to make you feel intensely.

Moving on, Sword To Shield feels every bit a personal track. There’s much melancholy across this entire album, however, so far Sword To Shield is by far the loneliest feeling. The greatest thing of all that MIDAS FALL manage to conjure is both that feeling of deep sorrow, all the while bringing your most empathetic self to forefront. You’re never alone in the great emotion of this record, somehow the band feels like kindred spirits.

From here, Dust and Bone manages to transition you from sorrowful listener, to another more primordial place. There’s a constant tingling over your skin, like a memory in the song for a time and space you never where, somewhere that lives just below the surface of you. Another anthem of dark, ambient music, constantly flitting between the familiar and the unknown in terms of sounds, always shifting, be it the guitar riff, or the fuzz and swoop of synthetic sound. The very primal nature of the music MIDAS FALL creates, in combination with the electronic methods they incorporate into their music brings about a sense of balance between two of humanities greatest conflicts; of our oldest selves, in our feelings and intuitions and of the progress of our minds and technology. There is a paralleling that somehow crosses into the soundscapes that syndicates the complexities of these two sides into one harmonious collection of tracks.

Awake is another honest, quiet and ghostly track. It cannot be overstated just how moving the vocals are here, and even on such a short track, filling in at just over two minutes, is a blissful moment. Likewise, In Sunny Landscapes feels yet more intimate, and even more hopeful in its approach. Almost completely keys, with the very echoes of some tonal effect to bring out yet more magic. MIDAS FALL have created an album that is very much influenced by more folk, orchestral and even alt-rock genres, but what has been produced is a sound all on its own, a genuinely pure experience that will affect every listener differently, creating a real bond with the music. It’s a special and unique experience. Lapsing is another slower opener, taking its time even at this late stage, embracing the echoes of each note and honing a contemplative space between them. There’s only the great expanse of tone and gentle melody over almost whispered vocals this time, and the switch between the dynamic, allowing for those muffled and distorted ambient inflections to course through the overall tune.

In no time at all, we reach the final track, Howling at the Clouds. There’s an echo of the first couple of tracks in terms of eerie, quality that the guitars bring and the deep, dark fuzz of ambient synth. Both vocals and rising guitars resonate through the song, while low lead vocals soar and ebb to create a beautiful soundscape. Maybe it’s fitting that MIDAS FALL end Evaporate in a more reserved and gentle manner, however for so much time spent demonstrating their prowess at really building a track into something magnificent, it almost feels a shame to step out so quietly, rather than unleash the magnitude of their sound in one final moment.

With such a unique and genuine sound, MIDAS FALL have created an album of truly beautiful scope. Sorrowful, primal, taking on the best inflections of folk and post-alt sounds and yet the heart of ambient electronia, Evaporate is some of their best work to date. Masterfully crafted, each song is a special moment filled with emotion and connection that you’ll be hard pressed to forget.

Rating: 9/10

Evaporate is out now via Monotreme Records.

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