Miniatures - Jessamines

  by Adrian Janes

published: 9 / 2 / 2018

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Review

Miniatures have made a great Cocteau Twins album. That may sound flippant, but it’s actually meant with respect – they have evidently so immersed themselves in the Cocteaus’ sound and style that these eleven songs all but amount to a summation of the whole sonic journey from ‘Garlands’ to ‘Milk and Kisses’. The mellifluous wash that begins ‘Try’, joined by a booming reverbed drum machine and strummed guitar, immediately conjures up much of their predecessors’ characteristic sound, expertly recreated by producer Matthew Hosking and the adroit mix by singer and keyboard player Annemarie Duff. Duff’s own vocal style however doesn’t attempt to emulate the outer reaches of Elizabeth Fraser’s Caledonian soulfulness, opting instead for the more diffident approach of, say, Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell. The seductive mood of this opening track is abruptly shattered by the fast and fiery guitars and drums that introduce ‘Jessamine’, a song that glides between smooth and barbed guitar textures, the latter gradually pushed ever higher in the mix, ratcheting up the tension. Combinations of relaxation and tension, mellowness and a barely contained guitar frenzy, continue to be skilfully deployed over the rest of the album. Duff’s most Fraser-esque moments come on ‘Dust’, where she successfully gambles that she can approach the voice of ‘Heaven and Las Vegas’, while guitarist Che Wadden, who masterfully moves between moods throughout, best releases his inner Robin Guthrie on the mesmerising ‘What You Want’, waterfalls of distorted guitar surrounding Duff’s voice. ‘Slow’ crystallises much of Miniatures’ achievement, its intro befitting the title before torrents of effect-drenched guitar are unleashed, with Duff’s voice in their midst like a lone traveller battling through a storm. Aptly, ‘Standstill’ closes the album; from a gentle guitar strumming as bright notes shoot over the top, the song eventually all but collapses in a sheer revelling in vistas of reverbed voice and instruments, the final drone trailing into infinity. Originality is one of the qualities we’re accustomed to listen out for and praise in new music. Yet in various cultural and musical traditions (for example, folk), it’s the faithful maintaining of forms and spirit that is aspired to. John Lennon once described the Beatles’ music as “electric folk”, and in a way this is what Miniatures, in their Cocteaus/shoegaze homage, have created with ‘Jessamines’: carrying the torch of a modern musical ‘tradition’, and doing it so well that their songs could have come from the 80's and 90's, and still stir the heart today.

Track Listing:-

1 Try
2 Jessamine
3 To the Lake
4 Form into Soft and Wild
5 Dust
6 Without Saying
7 What You Want
8 Silent Tide
9 Slow
10 Honey
11 Standstill

Band Links:-

https://en-gb.facebook.com/miniaturesb
https://miniatures.bandcamp.com/

Label Links:-

http://saintmarierecords.limitedrun.co
https://www.facebook.com/Saint-Marie-R
https://twitter.com/StMarieRecords
https://www.youtube.com/user/stmariere
https://instagram.com/saintmarierecord
https://plus.google.com/10115674474082