rulers, ruling all things

Personally, I can't stand this whole new "Folk" music. Not that I want to spread some hate or something, but Born Ruffians, The Dodos or - really - Mumford and Sons are all bands I can't listen to for more than a 5 minutes. Yes, exactly 5 minutes, smartass! It's all too obvious and too catchy. I kinda see some similarities to the whole Trip Hop Phenomena some years ago. At the point where some new and innovative music just turned into Lounge Sound. Where (some) musicians all of a sudden seemed to be satisfied just producing Background Music. However, I should not generalize and it's not that it really bothers me that much anyways.

So, maybe I should just get to the point and tell you about my new found love. The band is called Midlake and even though I have heard the name several times, I didn't think there was a reason to really check them out. This all changed a couple weeks ago, when I read a recent review of their third record "The Courage of Others". It's been out a while now on Bella Union. Bands like Pentangle, Fairport Convention or even Changes were mentioned as new found inspiration. Call it Brit-Folk, 70ies Psychedelic Folk or whatever. What really got me interested is the fact that this band at least tried to get back a little further and not just surfed the same folky-artsyfartsy-lifeloving wave like others did/do just to please the masses. So, basically that alone was reason enough for me to get hold of their latest record. I'm glad I did.

What spiritual and almost hunting music this is! Without wanting to sound too cheezy this record basically takes you back in time. "In a foreign land, in a foreign town" like others would sing. This is the perfect soundtrack to this strange Spring weather and these even stranger times in which we're living. For sure, this is nothing new under the sun, but I'm sure that this also was not the intention of this Texas-based group. There's no Uberhit nor a potential Single to be heard on this record, but who needs these anyway? This is an album to listen to as a whole! So, yeah of course the people at Pitchfork won't like it (edit: I just visited their Site to check: 3.6 Points! How obvious...haha) and of course most other peope thinking Folk Music means Bob Dylan and Born Ruffians won't neither. Anyone else might give it a try. At least myself was sceptical in the beginning as well. But I really love it now.

Midlake on Myspace