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EVAPORATE

Midas Fall

Post Rock/Math rock


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Midas Fall Evaporate album cover
4.72 | 11 ratings | 3 reviews | 55% 5 stars

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Studio Album, released in 2018

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Bruise Pusher (3:57)
2. Evaporate (5:38)
3. Soveraine (5:46)
4. Glue (3:53)
5. Sword To Shield (4:00)
6. Dust And Bone (4:01)
7. Awake (2:13)
8. In Sunny Landscapes (5:28)
9. Lapsing (4:09)
10. Howling At The Clouds (4:24)

Total time 43:29

Line-up / Musicians

- Elizabeth Heaton / vocals, performer & composer, mixing
- Rowan Burn / performer & composer

With:
- Ross Cochran-Brash / drums

Releases information

Artwork: Ásgeir Helgi Þrastarson

CD Monotreme Records - MONO130CD (2018, UK)

LP Monotreme Records ‎- MONO-130VNL (2018, UK)

Thanks to ? for the addition
and to Quinino for the last updates
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MIDAS FALL Evaporate ratings distribution


4.72
(11 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(55%)
55%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(27%)
27%
Good, but non-essential (18%)
18%
Collectors/fans only (0%)
0%
Poor. Only for completionists (0%)
0%

MIDAS FALL Evaporate reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by BrufordFreak
COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
5 stars It's nice to hear a softer, more delicate, even acoustic side of both Elizabeth and Rowan, as on songs, "Sword To Shield," "Awake," and "In Sunny Landscapes" as well as all of the orchestral strings so clearly, integrally, even in isolation. The band has definitely taken to exploring their options outside of the Post Rock formats and sounds that they began with, yet power songs like "Bruise Pusher," "Glue," "Dust and Bone," and "Howling at the Clouds" are as devastating in their impact as songs from previous releases.

1. "Bruise Pusher" (3:57) edgy sound coming from the sharply distorted guitars makes this one feel raw despite clean drums and Elizabeth's harp keys and long, sustained vocalizations. Still, this is fresh, potent, and packs a wallop in the instrumental sections. (9/10)

2. "Evaporate" (5:38) spacious chamber music opening turning electro-trip-hoppy with the advent of Elizabeth's long held reverbed vowels. Delicate piano flourishes alternate with sections in which heavy bass parts and full strings fill the soundscape. Definitely a top three song for me and one of my favorite Midas Fall songs of all-time. (9.5/10)

3. "Soveraine" (5:45) Elizabeth singing between the spacious aural field of multiple cello tracks, delicately picked (later, tremoloed) guitar notes. The loud arrival of what-feels-like orchestra waves lasts a brief few seconds before backing away, but then another series of waves washes in via Rowan's tremoloed guitar. Another quiet section is marched along by what feels like a tympanic rhythm pattern as guitars and strings rise and fall around Elizabeth's steady singing. (8.75/10)

4. "Glue" (3:52) The most "normal" Midas Fall song on the album, with a more normal CURE-like full sound palette and multiple vocal tracks and approaches--the lead one being in Elizabeth's trademark plaintive voice. The song builds to a mini-crescendo in the third minute before breaking for a little DEPECHE MODE-like modular synth bridge, then bursting forth into a heavy instrumental section to finish. (9/10)

5. "Sword To Shield" (4:00) opens with a very spacious soundscape with only a tinkering piano and delicate vocals filling the room. Cello eventually and sporadically joins in before a slow Post Rock soundscape fills the aural pathways in the third minute. But then it all reverts to the spacious sparsity of the opening section in the fourth minute for Elizabeth's final vocal input. The end is full band but still not mega-crescendoing like typical Post Rock fare. (9/10)

6. "Dust and Bone" (4:01) one of Midas Fall's masterful renderings in which they seem to be expressing the fragility of the human mind. Elizabeth is masterful as is the music in perfect support of the theme and intended mood. A top three song for me. (9.5/10)

7. "Awake" (2:13) gently picked guitars back Elizabeth's distant-sounding voice--a voice that is almost spoken, almost absent-minded, almost whispered. Then she sings in a stronger voice a "You are" chorus finishing the song by completing her sentence with the title word. Cool! (4.75/5)

8. "In Sunny Landscapes" (5:27) Enya-like voice and sustained single notes (and, later, chords) from Rowan's guitars open this song. Bass, strummed electrified acoustic guitar and cello join in during the vocal break in the second minute, then Elizabeth rejoins and quickly shifts to a very high register for some emotional singing. By the fourth minute I can't help wondering if this is going to stay in the realm of modern pop songs or develop into something more but, instead--surprise--the sound de-escalates and thins for a delicate vocal section sung in Elizabeth's normal speaking range. The following musical patch is interlaced with wordless vocals among the keys, guitars, bass, and sparse drums before Elizabeth finishes the song with one last verse in her high voice. (9/10)

9. "Lapsing" (4:09) opens with two low single note drones before zither-like piano-keyboard and distant cymbols and guitar slowly join in. The pace is ultra slow, drawn out, with a soundscape reminiscent of early MONO pieces (You Are There and Hymn to the Immortal Wind). The second half of the song sees the addition of cello and deep keyboard bass line as Elizabeth's vocals get a little creepy. Bass drum kicks in as sonic field fills. It's ominous and unsettling. But good. (9/10)

10. "Howling At The Clouds" (4:23) opens like a Post Rock evolution of a CURE song before breaking down to an emptiness in which Elizabeth's voice enters and fills our souls. The return of the music en force is immaterial to Elizabeth's singular intent or delivery, yet the instrumental section that follows her cessation is quite powerful-- seeming to reinforce or reverberate the effect of her message. This is awesome! Post Rock at its best--at its most pure. (9.5/10)

Five stars; a minor masterpiece of progressive rock music! This is the least Post Rock conforming album that I've heard from Elizabeth and Rowan but it is my favorite!

Review by tszirmay
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
5 stars Not really knowledgeable in a particular style means nothing when there so much blurred demarcation lines between prog genres anyway. Case in point, this remarkable album by this Scottish trio, which I landed upon by sheer good fortune and, as it can occasionally happen, bowling me away completely like a rolling strike right down the alley, pins flying, taking toll. The track list feels like an endlessly radiant suite, each piece blending with the previous challenge, opening eyes and ears with refined infusion.

Being a total pushover for dense atmospheres and a celestial voice, the very first seconds of "Bruise Pusher" nailed me to a proverbial cross of infinite salvation, as the tingling harp line intermingles with dense guitar swaths, walls of orchestrated string and a female vocalist by the name of Elizabeth Heaton that radiates both delicate power and shimmering beauty. The title track veers to a more electronic realm, with brooding, almost sinister bass tremors, the plaintive emanations from her sorrowful voice hitting hard and most of all, a constantly hopeful piano twinkle that serves to raise the spirit. The orchestrations again rule the waves, as the vaporizing water flood the ears. "Soveraine" segues perfectly into a heartfelt chant, each note expressive and meaningful in its fragility, guided along by the layered cello, as well as echoing guitar arpeggios, and a sense of eternity that just grabs at the senses. Imagine a proggier version of Portishead, Beth Gibbons was after all, one of the finest singers in music. This impression is most evident on the immensely seductive "Glue", featuring a magnificent performance all around, what with the electronic pace, the symmetric guitar rasps and that serpentine swirl of a siren sitting atop a rocky crag, beckoning the sailors to meet their fate. The denouement is just plain sublime. An exhausted piano serenely searches for a new avenue of expression, even more sedate than the previous commotion, "Sword to Shield" showcases a more orchestral chamber quartet feel that provides excruciating beauty to the arrangement, kneeling at the shrine of forceful emotional rapture and acceptance. Here again, the pained buildup of "Dust and Bone" emits an overt sense of vulnerability, hesitantly bold in a rather odd way, as exemplified by the percussive percolations of Ross Cochran-Brash's kit. This gem is followed ideally by a swooning voice that glimmers in the twilight, "Awake" suggesting that gentle rekindling of awareness that initiates every day, the consciousness of breath and senses. A pastoral deflection on the originally bright "In Sunny Landscapes", a peeling off layers of resistance, reflective in the mood variations and the basic simplicity of the arrangement, the heavenly voice firmly ingrained, the sweet orchestrations ruffling no feathers, and a perfect landing finale. As if wishing to define the notion of contrast, the cottony mist of "Lapsing" is like witnessing a solo piano dirge that slowly escalates out of its two-note torpor, a dripping cello expressing deep felt emotions and a bass furrow opting for even more undertow gloom, this tremendous piece is where the darker side resides. Somber, ghostly, and utter melancholy. Would you be at all surprised if the final track is the apotheosis of this album, fittingly encapsulating all the qualities that make this a sensational discovery? "Howling at the Clouds" is the stamp on your sonic passport, proving that you have entered the realm of the divine. After the childlike piano intro, the zither has its say, the reverberating drums echoing off the walls, trembling guitars that seem to shriek and bellow, setting the table for the vocalized mournful story, eventually stormed by the onsetting winds of despondence, scattering the clouds in all directions. A magnificent silence it all.

This was an overwhelming experience the first time I heard it and now, ten times in, it just keeps revealing itself to me as a prized masterpiece.

5 dehydrations

Latest members reviews

4 stars The first album I've listened to by this duo. Comes with the ethereal, spacious soundscapes that you'd expect of something filed under the Post Rock genre, but definitely more to it than that. Heavy use of reverb and distortion but to good effect alongside Heaton's chamber music style vocals. Tr ... (read more)

Report this review (#2490859) | Posted by bartymj | Wednesday, January 6, 2021 | Review Permanlink

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