Although I’m not totally sold on Midsummer and their whole epic image, I’m giving their four song EP (which contains more than 30 minutes of music) a thumbs-up for one reason: there are far too few bands around today that can use their musical chops to make thoroughly intricate and engaging music. Midsummer excels at this, but there are other aspects of their work that just don’t make the cut. C’mon, all ye mystical travelers or eternal echoes, and we’ll explore the opaque drapery that is Midsummer!
Basically, this is a concept record that takes us from the "shade of the bloodless moon", around the solar system and back to eclipse the "sanguine sun". The lyrics are far more grandiose, fantastical and down right ridiculous than anything Peter Sinfield used his medieval fountain pen to inscribe for King Crimson circa In the Court of the Crimson King or In the Wake of Poseidon. The four songs join for a single poem, filled with awkward lines like "Borne away on winds I can’t rescind/on pleadings terse for eclipse reversed." Or how about, "I’m lulled to repose through echoes of the winters dim/ with veils disposed and light left passage in." Crafty? Maybe, but the words are so flowery that they cancel out any legitimate hidden meaning.
With that behind us, we can get to the positive ways in which Midsummer compare to King Crimson, Sigur Rós or Sunny Day Real Estate. Like the latter groups, Midsummer play a contemporary brand of fantastical progressive rock, full of mystery and emotion, and they do it with conviction. The first song (Unfortunately, the songs are named only by pictures of the sun in different states of eclipse, and I'm no astronomer) launches the EP in a sea of orchestral e-bows, and slowly builds over the course of six minutes with pianos, slide guitar and monk-like choirs, until the drums finally kick in and the song slowly fades away in a sleepy stomp. The second song opens in Sunny Day style, smoothly exploding over quickly pattered drums, while busy, melodic guitars soaring over the vocals. After a series of dynamic crescendos and lulls, the whole piece collapses nicely into a minor longing string movement, then builds uneasily into an urgently strummed counter-melodic outro. For the final two songs -- or shall I say epic journeys? -- Midsummer continue to use this successfully vibrant formula, wherein cellos, bells, and melodic acoustic guitars emerge from within heavenly choruses and walls of Sigur Rós-like noise, and dreamy guitars swarm around distant pianos and disjointed drumbeats, making for quite an impressive "Tarry through time’s reaction," if you know what I mean.
As you can guess from the lyrics, Moon Shadow is an epic and ambitious fairy tale, except that its story could easily be told by the music alone. Luckily for me, more than half of the album is purely instrumental.
There are many exciting directions Midsummer could pursue in the future. Perhaps they could sing in Icelandic... But please, whatever you do, Midsummer, don’t let Adrian Belew join the band.
