miaou - The Day Will Come Before Long (Album Review)
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Written by Patrick Gormley
Japan's mercurial architects of enticing whimsy miaou end their three year recording hiatus with the long awaited and very captivating, 'The Day will Come Before Long'. Their fourth release and first since 2008s 'All Around Us', it finds the band immerse themselves in a much more electronic soundscape than on previous forays, conceiving arguably their most lavish and consummate record to date.
From their beginnings in 2001 as a university project, the trio of Tatsuki Hamasaki and sisters Mayumi and Hiromi Hasegawa have spent the best part of the last decade enduring to blur the lines between genres with their finely crafted dreamy vision of instrumental rock. A clearly defined progression is evident throughout miaous back catalogue but it is with 'The Day Will Come Before Long', that the Tokyo based outfit splice the finest of what has gone before with sophisticated synths, mashed up samples and glitchy guitars with impressive results.
The very brief intro 'Notnotnot' heralds this more experimental side flowing majestically into the xylophonic swells and looped beats of the gorgeous 'Small Dream'. A near perfectly crafted fluidity coaxes the listener through the unblemished opening half before the first of the albums two guest vocals emerges, the whispered vocal of Epic 45s Ben Holton on 'Endings'. Adding yet more dimension to this already multi textured record. It is alas with the second of these guest vocals that the slightest of blemishes appears. Ben Coopers(Electric President/Radical Face/Ghost) voice it feels, possibly sits too uncomfortably with the music on track 'Lost Souls' and doesn’t provide the spark one hears on the previous collaboration with Holton. This however is quickly forgotten as the transcendent 'Keep Drifting My Heart' ever so gracefully brings this excellent album to a stunning close.
While for some the semblance to Icelandic pair Mum and Seabear may be unavoidable with 'The Day Will Come Before Long', in my book this can only be construed as a positive. For with their latest offering Miaou have made a blissfully absorbing record that drifts sublimely from its start to its end and I will judge it on this alone.
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From their beginnings in 2001 as a university project, the trio of Tatsuki Hamasaki and sisters Mayumi and Hiromi Hasegawa have spent the best part of the last decade enduring to blur the lines between genres with their finely crafted dreamy vision of instrumental rock. A clearly defined progression is evident throughout miaous back catalogue but it is with 'The Day Will Come Before Long', that the Tokyo based outfit splice the finest of what has gone before with sophisticated synths, mashed up samples and glitchy guitars with impressive results.
