Midas Fall – Evaporate

Evaporate is a lesson in how to make extreme music that can be ugly and beautiful in equal measure

Album Review by Tony Inglis | 24 Apr 2018
Album title: Evaporate
Artist: Midas Fall
Label: Monotreme Records
Release date: 27 Apr

Scottish post-rock’s credentials are set in stone – the bands from these lands which fly the flag for the genre are among its greatest. And Midas Fall fit neatly, and deservedly, into the scene, steeped in all its tradition.

In the grand scheme of things, the duo’s fourth release Evaporate is a relatively minor one in the post-rock canon, but it's certainly not without its pleasures. The most gripping of these is Elizabeth Heaton and Rowan Burn's ability to move effortlessly from delicateness to punishing waves of sound via stomping electronic beats.

Interestingly, in 2013 they shared the stage on tour with fellow Scots CHVRCHES, who also revel in electronica, albeit one that is far more sugary sweet. They may depart in their overall sound, and no longer share the same stature, but the comparison remains. If CHVRCHES are the ice cream after you get your tonsils out, Midas Fall are the doctor who reassures then rips them from your throat.

The Midas Fall sound is most emphatically exemplified on aptly-named opener Bruise Pusher, which feels like being lured into a trap and then punched in the face (in the best possible way) as it moves from something hymnal to something brutal. Glue is the darkest of electronic music that pitches its tent somewhere between Crystal Castles and Blanck Mass.

All the while, Heaton’s ghostly vocals anchor the record, unafraid to bring them to the fore in the more stripped down Sword to Shield. Evaporate is a lesson in how to make extreme music that can be ugly and beautiful in equal measure.

Listen to: Bruise Pusher, Glue, Lapsing

https://www.midasfall.com/