Midlake – London Shepherd’s Bush Empire – 11/4/07
4/5
By: Tim Dellow
'The Trials of Van Occupanther' is my sleeping record.
I mean this as the highest form of praise, for it's no dull record; rather a calmingly soporific pastoral delight whose songs work with the ebb of the natural world to calm me to a comfortable doze at one with the planet.
Upon receiving the offer to see them live, I stirred from this pleasant slumber (the stoner's form of jumping at the chance) and dragged myself to the auspicious surroundings of Shepard's Bush Empire, prior home to sepia BBC broadcasts and gangshow blues.
The audience, polite, reserved, white and middle class, waited patiently through the supports (blissfully unaware that one was Midlake acting as the backing band for Robert Gomez), before they retake the stage to re-imagine their tales of puritanical bliss; a form of simplicity that has a strong resonance in this audience of devotees to the rat race.
Perhaps no band has ever related the unbelievable sadness of the content, quite so well. Songs from that particularly perfect album are faithfully reproduced, but with a firmer emphasis and expression that compounds their absolute humanity, where tracks from their more playful, lower-fi debut are treated with similar gravitas to hold us in a soup of blissful summerlight to enchant us into future devotion, and a desire to be reborn in a time and place with more meaning, more purpose and beauty; earthy and real.
Your Feedback
Login to post your comment