Courtesy of Aquarius Records:
We haven't heard from these guys in a while, not since their Perils disc on Mimicry from a few years back. And now they're back, as part of the ever expanding Latitudes series. Featuring members of long time AQ faves Guapo, Miasma are equally as progtastic as Guapo, but where Guapo channel the hard and heavy side of classic prog, Miasma, are more dramatic, with a gipsy folk flair, an Eastern European vibe, jaunty, and playful, cinematic and a bit over the top. Like the soundtrack to some Edward Gorey cartoon come to life. Dark and dangerous, but wild and weirdly wonderful at the same time.
The opening track here begins with a moody gipsy folk hoedown, stings and horns, woven in an intricate dance, before the drums kick in and the song is transformed into epic and intense krautrocky prog. Warm wheezing keyboards, angular riffing, wild octopoidal drumming, intricate arrangements, super dramatic keyboards and strings
A bit of a Goblin vibe, the song builds and builds and builds, a frenzied musical pagan ritual, it's hard not to imagine the band in all black, flowing robes and witches hats, performing in front of some huge stone circle on the top of a massive hill. The second track is a creeping dark ambient sprawl, lurching "Boris The Spider" bassline over whispering winds, clouds of cymbal sizzle, deep cavernous rumbles, haunting organs, mysterious effects that drift from speaker to speaker...
The final track begins like a simple piano and violin chamber music piece, with a definite Eastern European flair, before about halfway through, when the drums and bass kick in, and we're back in the prog, the drums complex and intricate, the bass, lumbering and minor key, the piano more and more frenzied as if trying to keep up with the drums, finally all the parts coalescing into a massive moody riff, bordering on classic doom territory, before everything drops out once again leaving just the piano and strings, until the drums come back in, then finally the bass and the guitar, the climax, intense and dramatic, epic and majestic!
Comes packaged in a super intricate hand screened die cut fold over sleeve with a full color insert. The cover has a sticker affixed to the front and each copy is hand stamped and numbered. Limited to 1000 copies worldwide, 500 of which made it to the United States, we got about 25 copies...
