Album Review: Milieu - Songs We Found In The Sand (rsc002)

In the grand tradition of melodic downtempo IDM, Milieu has released a free album on the new Netlabel Rope Swing Cities:

Milieu - Songs We Found In The Sand

If Rope Swing Cities keeps releasing albums of this quality, the label will go far.

This album is richly atmospheric with plenty of great moody textural progression, but the real hook of these songs lies in their melodies and harmonies. What I mean to say is: these are "Songs" more than "Tracks".

Compositionally, there are few hard delineating lines between sections (intro, verse, chorus, bridge, outro). Instead, Milieu tends to build progressions that evolve and shift slowly over the length of the track. Without being dull, the music is definitely not foreground music, in large part because of this slow evolving compositional style. Put it on to relax or as you need to get some work done, and it will mostly stay out of your way, occasionally making you stop and listen to absorb the depth of the moment.

The beats are in the subtle glitch-hop vein, with just enough bounce and movement to keep your head bobbing. While this album is definitely derivative of Boards of Canada, at its best moments it can easily stand toe to toe with their latest effort. Overall, a very solid effort.

Standout tracks include (full track downloads):

Elep
As Summer Blooms
Poplar Drive 1967
Inpond

Download the whole record here (zip 120 meg).

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