Thursday 11 December 2008

Miracle Fortress - Five Roses



It's coming up to christmas which is a time for giving and receiving and getting fat, quite fitting for this post as i gave away the Sportsday Megaphone album and in return i received a recommendation for Miracle Fortress. After listening to all the songs on their myspace player more times than was probably healthy i figured i should buy the album and i'm glad i did because the sheer beauty of this music is intoxicating. 'Five Roses' demanded that i listen to it three times in a row and captivated my attention in such a way that i wasn't able to do anything but close my eyes, lay back on a pile of pillows and lose myself in the music. If this all sounds a bit fairytale then i'd be inclined to agree with you but if you don't commit fully to this album then you won't appreciate the amount of thought, care and love that has gone into making it. With a good pair of headphones and an otherwise silent house you can feel the band playing all around your head, every instrument is panned off centre by a varying degree creating a dense feeling of texture and complexity. Soft layers of warbling synths and guitar distortion bubble up and down and oscillate round and round whilst Graham Van Pelt's soothing and eery multi-layered vocals drift in and out of your consciousness. It's like being wrapped in a big cosy duvet and having someone turn the pillow over everytime you start to get just a little bit too warm. Miracle Fortress is from Canada and this isn't really surprising considering the wealth of interesting and quirky indie bands that have been hailing from there recently (ask Crazy Dave if you don't believe me). This does, however, seem to make the CD quite hard (or at least expensive) to get hold of, thankfully i can trust Resident to always have the goods.

The track i've chosen is 'Next Train' not necessarily because it's the best from the album but it probably stands on it's own better than the rest. This really is another album that needs to be heard from start to finish, alternatively i could have posted the cover of 'Digital Love' by Daft Punk which is brilliant, i thoroughly recommend you listen to that now, it's a real builder and gives me the shivers but it's not on the album (disappointingly).

Miracle Fortress - Next Train

No comments: