COLD WAVES DIVIDE US

It took almost six years for the Scottish female duo MIDAS FALL to follow up the excellent "Evaporate" reviewed at the time on profilprog. com by the no less excellent Gérald HAWEY! A duo which became a trio for the new album "Cold Waves Divide Us" with the inclusion of Michael HAMILTON, a multi-instrumentalist like the two girls, this is also the fifth disc of MIDAS FALL.

Summarizing and fitting MIDAS FALL somewhere is relatively complicated, their music is a mixture of alternative rock, progressive rock and post rock, I would personally classify them as climatic rock in that there are calm passages and others on the contrary very rock, very energetic, the title track is therefore very representative of what I have just written. It is sometimes said that the voice is an instrument in its own right, that is exactly what happens here with the vocals of Elizabeth HEATON. Female vocals are an element that must be taken into account in the originality of their music.

The opening track "In the Morning We'll Be Someone Else" begins gently on the piano before the guitars appear tense and nervous, it's moving to say the least, a little Siouxsie side very present on the elegiac vocals of Elizabeth HEATON (9/10)."I Am Wrong" starts with tribal drums, the rhythm here taking precedence over the other instruments, it's almost post rock metal, here again it effectively cleans up the eardrums (8/10).The third track "Salt" is calmer at the beginning (fortunately in a certain way), this time it's ambient post rock wave, a tense atmosphere once again (8/10 ) from ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN with MIDAS FALL sauce! "In This Avalanche" delicate piano at the opening, Elizabeth's diaphanous voice, superb strings, deep and cottony at the same time, the first soft track of the album (8/10). Change of register with "Point of Diminishing Return", a powerful electronic whirlwind, reminiscent of Thomas DOLBY or even Gary NUMAN and his metropolitan army, all in supercharged mode, my favorite piece on the entire disc ( 10/10).

"Monsters" which comes next, is the second calm track, magnificent high-pitched voice, lots of strings here again, high class melodic post rock which accelerates gradually, a cross between THE CURE and ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN (already mentioned), the cream of the British new wave of the eighties with the sound of 2024 (9/10). "Atrophy" is probably the most ionesque of the pieces, where the vocal phrasing of Elizabeth HEATON joins that of Joanna HOGG, pleasant but one of the least exciting on the record for my taste (7/10). The title track which follows, the longest of the album, close to six minutes, engages in the same channel, ethereal vocals in a dreamy mist which soar well beyond from 1:24, evanescent without pun intended, the trills of six strings, mainly from Rowan BURN, burst out, even splashing on a mid tempo sprinkled with strings (them again) and percussions of real inventiveness, the second pearl of the work (10/10).

The last two tracks "Little Wooden Boxes" first of all, a calm, sweet singing, before the rise in tension of the guitar from 1:11 with vocals that rise higher, percussive handclaps, a climatic mid tempo, a bit like the whole album, which gets energized at 3:40 to close with powerful guitars, a wall of sounds (8/10). Finally the last one "Mute" is excellent in the melodic post rock genre, too short in my opinion, the listener is never satisfied (!), the unbridled synthesizers and the demonic percussions do tons to delight our ears (8/10).

MIDAS FALL, a revelation for me, it's never too late to catch up, I will nevertheless listen carefully to their previous productions.

The amorphous Scottish trio is back with its first album in five years--since the masterpiece that is Evaporate.

1. "In the Morning We'll Be Someone Else" (4:09) Post Rock perfection. This one opens with a delicate and spacious palette of atmospheric sound before spaced-out drums, guitar harmonics, and the occasional guitar power chord over/within which the great Elizabeth Heaton sings in her voice that sounds like it comes from the Queen of the Underworld. The song keeps building and building--especially with the cymbal crashes and additional sustained guitar note play embellished by axe-master Rowan Burn in the fourth and fifth minutes. (10/10)

2. "I Am Wrong" (5:12) true Post Rock with all of its walls of sound in their dynamic glory, getting better, stronger, more powerful, with each minute of the song's progression. Elizbeth's vocals are amazing--using words that strike one like a cascade of arrows! I have to, here, thank Michael Hamilton for his love of metal music--and Rowan for her excellent acquisition of drumming skills/choices (as well as her awesome duet of guitar arpeggi). When Elizabeth pierces us with the her long-held vowel howls (within the lyrics) and then the "O-o-ooooh" screams in the second half, I think I've been seduced against my will she And then if you are fortunate enough to see the band's video of the song on YouTube with dancer Amber Dollin's extraordinary performance of videographer Stephen Alexander's Possession-inspired cinematography, you know why this is one of the best songs--maybe the best song--of 2024! (10/10)

3. "Salt" (5:28) a more tenderly-rendered song though it is still fraught with angst and latent danger like all of the other music from this album. Elizabeth's performance(s) are awesome--especially that background siren's voice. This is another true Post Rock song. Too bad the vocals don't soar more and that the instruments don't crescendo as high as usual. (8.875/10)

4. "In this Avalanche" (4:04) gentle wooing of the listener with plenty of heavy-hearted words. The music is solid though very slow and drawn out in its subtle and deliberate build. (8.875/10)

5. "Point of Diminishing Return" (5:00) an interesting song for the weird warbling effect imposed upon the lead synthesizer--the instrument that presents and carries the melody over the course of the first half of the song. All of the heaviness backs off at the half-way mark so that the music can reform and rebuild--this time with "cello," guitars and synths sharing the polyphonic re-presentation of the melodies. Were it not for Elizabeth's wordless vocalese in the fifth minute this would be a complete instrumental! (9/10)

6. "Monsters" (4:18) after a very delicate vocal in the sparsely-populated atmospheric opening, the song gets much better in the mostly-instrumental second half. If I weren't so deaf to lyrics, this typically-emotional vocal performance might strike deeper chords. As it is, it feels more like a nice Unforgettable Fire-era U2 song. (8.75/10)

7. "Atrophy" (4:01) opens with a very pregnant, very delicate feeling sonic field--double bass-sounding MIDI keyboard notes and heavily-reverved sustained ("infinity" Michael Brook called it) guitar notes in the background. Elizabeth introduces her Celine Dion-like style voice with heart-wrenching precision. At the end of the second minute her voice gets a little meatier while the soundscape remains ambient heavily-repressed metal. Extraordinary performance from Elizabeth; I don't know if I've ever heard quite this kind of stretched out, almost-operatic of a vocal performance from her before. The insidious build in the sonic realm hear comes from layers upon layers of synthesized chords instead of strumming guitars. (9.25/10)

8. "Cold Waves Divide Us" (5:54) softly bounding keyboard chord notes and ominous distorted guitar chords in the background support Elizabeth's etheric, child- (or ghost-) like vocal here. The drums and electric guitar that arrive in the third minute are by far the most dynamic/aggressive of the whole album. Elevated by the awesome ending. (9.75/10)

9. "Little Wooden Boxes" (5:23) a palette and feel that reminds me of the spacious latency of Chris Isaac's 1991 world mega hit, "Wicked Games," yet Rowan, Michael and Elizabeth have taken the soundscape into an entirely different direction--one that remains richly atmospheric in spite of its Post Rock slow build. In the first part of the fourth minute things empty our leaving Elizabeth's voice in a deep well of heavily-reverbed space, but then the storm surge wave of full power unleashes to carry out to the song's end. (9.25/10)

10. "Mute" (3:41) ominous low-end chords and a pulsing yet-syncopated tom-tom sequence and synth bass ground this one to the heavy metal core of the Earth. Even Elizabeth is compelled to sing in lower-than-usual register until all hell breaks loose at the three-minute mark. Awesome guitar from Rowan! And then Elizabeth's plaintive attempt to patch things up with her healing voice closes the song out. Wonderful! I love the force of this one! (9.25/10)

Total Time 47:13

Everyone paying attention to my writings and playlists knows that Elizabeth Heaton possesses one of my favorite voices of the 21st Century--made even better by the stupendous music that she and Rowan Burn and Michael Hamilton weave around her as well as by the tremendous effects they use on her vocal tracks. This album feels quite different from its predecessor, Evaporate, not quite as reverb-drenched atmospheric, with a more diverse choice of song styles and instrumental palettes. Cold Waves Divide Us may not be as consistently high as Evaporate, but the highs ("In the Morning ?", "I Am Wrong" and the title song) might very possibly be higher.

A-/five stars; another minor masterpiece of powerful, atmospheric, vocal Post Rock music from my favorite act in the Post Rock sub-genre. Highly recommended: essential for you post rock fans. And, if you've never had the extreme privilege of hearing the voice of Elizabeth Heaton, this would not be a bad place to start!