MIRIODOR

This is the first MIRIODOR record not to blow me away in some manner. I was really surprised at how samey it is and when you do that for over 70 minutes your not going to win any brownie points with me. They're a four piece band at this point and this album features sax, synths, piano, violin and percussion throughout. A big drop in my opinion from their debut and what would follow. But hey it's MIRIODOR so there is lots to like as well.

"Regards" opens with piano, sax and drums mixing it up then it kicks in harder before 2 minutes. Great sound here. A calm 4 minutes in and some dissonant sax follows. It picks back up late. "Spiral" features piano and sax standing out the most. "Valence" is a change as we get a dark atmosphere until it picks up before 1 1/2 minutes. Love the sax after 2 minutes. "Suspicion" has an uplifting vibe early on. When the piano comes in after 3 minutes it reminds me of UNIVERS ZERO. Frogs end it. "Writing For Remi" is slow moving with sparse sounds. "Oriflamme" sounds really good and it gets a little crazy before 2 minutes. The intro is reprised late. "Nocturnal Processing" sounds good with the keys and sax. Beautiful stuff. "Middle Ages" ends it with some piano and sax with atmosphere. It does get intense before settling back.

A good album for sure and I didn't touch on every track just because I would be repeating myself a lot. 3.5 stars.