Midnight Orchestra - A Clearing

  by Maarten Schiethart

published: 1 / 10 / 2006

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Review

Usually it's the self-released albums that get priority with me but due to a postal hick-up Bedfordshire's the Midnight Orchestra's first album only now gets the attention it deserves. The duo of Tom Hubmann and Jack Sharp, no not an orchestra at all, debut with a loungy mish-mash of "ballads" and downbeat electronica. Edgy and sharp, 'A Clearing' is on the black and white nouvelle vague movie side of sounding "cinemascopic". This little outfit does offer an odd mixture which also includes immaculate harmony singing. Here's an 'indie' album that has no off-kilter expertise in sounding wacky to the core, yet instead is a smooth blend of matching bits from various styles. Midnight Orchestra bring on the brass section in 'The Searcher' just when you thought you were being lulled asleep by the first seven tracks. And as the brass section - probably a sample - is withdrawn again, the Midnight Orchestra sink you back into their warm bath of lush and lazy mysteria. 'A Clearing' is an even, modest and unpretentious showcase of lo-fi triphop from a village in England. Albeit not shockingly original.

Track Listing:-

1 Intro
2 Burried
3 Cold Out
4 Grey Matter
5 Dawn's Child
6 Our Passage Home
7 The Searcher
8 When They Come
9 Outro
10 Bonus Track - Whispering Hollow