| ⭐⭐✨ |
I am admittedly late to the party on this one. This album was released all the way back in September of this year, and has steadily amassed an online buzz, probably helped along by a recent glowing Anthony Fantano review. It is always heartening to see artists finally getting their flowers off their obviously hard work. My curiosity was piqued when I had a quick read at some of the labels this thing was attracting too. Glitch, ambient, tape loops, noise, electro-acoustic. Not a set of genres you see side-by-side everyday, I immediately had to throw it on. Now, a good review is built on honesty, and I need to be vulnerable here.
miffle is clearly well-equipped in these artforms. There is obviously competent manipulation capability, the mechanics of which will probably remain a mystery to me. This is to say, on a technical and aesthetic level, “goodbye, world!” is very well done. Unfortunately, on a more abstract enjoyment level, I find it hard to parse much out of a lot of these rather stagnant pieces. The baseline for much of this album’s tracklist is already paper thin. Whether its lonely guitar patterns strung out to the end of their tether, or soupy collages of electronic sound and sampled material failing to connect with any greater purpose, the end result is usually the same. I’m still feeling hungry by the end of the course.
This is not to say that the whole thing is a bust. “static snow” is a shining example of ambient murk done right, and its refreshing acoustic outro is a splash of ice water. The swampy hypnagogia of “remnants of a dream” tickles the brain with its tactile glitches, and closes on some beautifully warbled piano. “the invisible girl” jolts the system with the most genuinely hi-fi production on the record thus far. Its nostalgic chord progression captures a collective desire for days gone by. It is precisely in these moments of clarity that the album blossoms. The music itself doesn’t necessarily have to be comprehensible, but there needs to be a real intent behind each choice. Though speaking of incomprehensible, the penultimate “long walk home” breaks the album out of its introverted shell and goes full, unadulterated noise. I say the word “oasis” a lot in these reviews, but after the rather one-dimensional approaches to a lot of these songs, this switch-up is thoroughly appreciated. It’s actually breathtaking too. This is without mentioning the gorgeous bed of strings post-chaos. I saw a glimpse of what miffle is truly capable of, and I want *more*.
“goodbye, world!” is an intoxicating set of vibes that unfortunately lack adhesion. For as much as I can be impressed by what is happening here, I ultimately felt hollow walking away from what was slated to be a captivating listen. Many of the loops lacked body beyond their manipulation, and the mostly thin build of the mix did no favours to this album either. At the end of the day, what we have here is basically a collection of glorified outros. I feel like I’m constantly winding down from one moment to the next. Like the show is over and there is no way to go back and get the full context. This will appeal to many avid underground avant music fans, as it is exactly the right amount of weird for people to be wooed. I wouldn’t take this as a total dismissal of this niche either. I have enjoyed plenty of ambient and droning music in the past, this is obviously just not my preferred flavour.
Dan Will Review 