US folk-rockers Midlake set for Brighton gig
Vocalist/ guitarist Eric Pulido and the rest of the band have more than stepped up to the plate to write the newest chapter of the band�s illustrious career. Named after a call-and-response style of singing, from Gregorian chants to sea shanties, the new record is as rich and symphonic as it is dynamic and kaleidoscopic.
�It�s always through the scope of Midlake,� says Pulido, �but on Antiphon we wanted to embrace the psychedelia, style and nuance you might hear in bands from yesteryear while also being aware of music influences present now. The result was less folk and more rock. Less nostalgic and more progressive. Now the sky�s the limit.�
The band wrote and recorded Antiphon in six harmonious months � bar Vale, which had been demoed without Smith during recording of previous album The Courage of Others. With its ravishing, rippling textures symptomatic of Antiphon�s scale, Vale showed how far they�d already come. The remaining nine tracks � the album is free-flowing in feel, concise in structure � confirm it�s very much Midlake, but uncannily rebooted, and relaxed.�
Stepping into new roles, collaborating on songwriting and having Pulido take over as frontman, he admits it wasn�t the easiest transition for any of the band but the experience was enormously freeing: �Antiphon is the most honest representation of the band as a whole, as opposed to one person�s vision that we were trying to facilitate. We wanted to write in a way that wasn�t putting parameters around what it is we were creating. It was a more honest representation of who we really are.�
+ support Horse Thief
St George's Church, Brighton
Thursday 27 February Doors 7pm
Price �18 / �20 � available from Resident
Dome Box Office: 01273 709709