AVANTI!

I might as well come out and say that I find most of Miriodor material difficult to digest and it usually takes me more than 15-20 spins for an album of theirs to even begin settling in. Still, unlike other similar acts like NeBeLNeST or Guapo, their music has a definite appeal to me that makes this time consuming investment feel less straining than what it otherwise might have felt. In other words, I could probably get just as much enjoyment out of NeBeLNeST or Guapo records, in the long run, but I just can't handle the tedious process!

It's certainly been a long time coming that I would finally acknowledge Avanti! as the masterpiece that it is. The road here was both rough and bumpy, but pleasant and completely mesmerizing in the long run. My first encounter with this album was a highly unpleasant experience and it took me almost a whole week before I even bothered to give this release another chance. My next few encounters were not as unpleasant, in fact they were slightly... dare I say it... enjoyable. But I was still unconvinced that this release was as excellent as many others claimed it to be. I tried to find reasons for my discontent but blaming it on Miriodor's change towards the expanded song format where every track was at least 6 minutes long just wasn't that effective. I then tried to give it my usual excuse for lacking in the composition and arrangements departments, à la Guapo and NeBeLNeST, but deep inside I knew that this was not true. Acceptance came only once I ran out of excuses and my grieving process elevated to the next phase.

Even though I must have listened to this album at least 15 times, I still couldn't instantly recognize any of the compositions based solely on their titles and instead was only able to gasp certain themes and moments. This was also the time where a few track favorites began to emerge out of the shadows. But even though I haven't yet grown weary of the material, I suddenly stopped listening to Avanti! all together, for a period of almost three month, and picked it up again during the summer vacation with a completely new outlook on things. Not only did this record feature audible compositions that I could pick up instantaneously, but there was an overall feeling of satisfaction on my part after listening to it! Could it be, I asked myself?

It has now been another 5 month and I can with all certainty claim that it was! I guess what I'm trying to say here is that we should not write off anything based on the first, second or even fifth encounter and instead give the music enough time to grow. How much time we're actually talking about here depends on many different factors, among these is the listeners music experience and ability to gasp the content, so I'll leave the time frame entirely up to you. Just make sure you don't jump in for one or two visits and then forget all about it, since it won't be a time well spent.

***** star songs: Dare Devil (8:44) Standard Deviation (6:39) Avanti! (8:18) Shadow Of The Alarm Clock (7:54)

**** star songs: Bewitchment (9:16) Meeting Point (9:17) To Be Determined (10:29)