Mildlife - Automatic (Heavenly)

WHAT THE COVER LOOKS LIKE:

WHAT THEIR VIDEO LOOKS LIKE:

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WHAT WE SAY:

Making better use of their time, Mildlife tighten up without losing any of their genre disregarding joy, to suck you deeper into their Kosmische coloured, disco dabbling, Madchester echoing, early house nodding, psychedelic yacht rock & jazz funking fusion grooves for Heavenly.

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WHAT YOUR EARS SAY:

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WHAT THE RELEASE NOTES SAY:

When Mildlife’s debut album, Phase, was released in 2018 it didn’t so much explode on to the scene as ooze. Their mellifluous mix of jazz, krautrock and, perhaps more pertinently, demon grooves, was the word of mouth sensation of that year among open-minded DJs and diggers searching for the perfect beat.

Their emergence was backed up by European tours that demonstrated a riotously loose-limbed approach to performance that was every bit as thrilling as Phase’s tantalising promise. What was more impressive was how lightly they wore influences that took in Can, Patrick Adams and Jan Hammer Group, while primarily sounding precisely like Mildlife.

By the end of 2018 they’d been nominees for Best Album at the Worldwide FM Awards (Worldwide’s Gilles Peterson was a notable champion) and won Best Electronic Act at The Age Music Victoria Awards back home in Melbourne. Their progress post-Phase was cemented with a UK deal with Jeff Barrett’s Heavenly, who released How Long Does It Take? replete with Cosmic doyen Baldelli and Dionigi remixes, while last year they were officially anointed by DJ Harvey when he included The Magnificent Moon on his Pikes compilation Mercury Rising Vol II.

With Automatic, the band have made a step-change from their debut. It’s more disciplined, directional and arguably more danceable. As on Phase, they are unafraid to let a track luxuriate in length without ever succumbing to self-indulgence. The arrangements, tightly structured thanks to Tom Shanahan (bass) and Jim Rindfleish’s fatback drumming, permit space for the others to add spice to the stew, topped off with Kevin McDowell’s ethereal vocals as Mildlife effortlessly glide between live performance and studio songwriting. “The recorded songs kind of become the new reference point for playing the songs live,’ says Kevin. “They both have different outcomes and we make our decisions for each based on that, but they’re symbiotic and they both influence each other. It’s usually a fairly natural flow from live to recorded back to live.”


The centrepiece of Automatic is the title track where the band sound like Kraftwerk and Herbie Hancock on quarantined lockdown in Bob Moog’s Trumansburg workshop. It’s both a departure and quintessentially Mildlife. This is music you can dance to rather than ‘dance music’ and it’s all the better for it. 

  Credits
Mildlife are Adam Halliwell, Kevin McDowell, Jim Rindfleish and Tomas Shanahan. All songs written, recorded and produced by Mildlife.
Rare Air & Memory Palace written by Mildlife with James Donald. Additional percussion by Craig Shanahan. Mixing by Steve Schram, Mastering by Joseph Carra. Artwork by Confetti Studio., Photography by Tom Ross.

Equipment Used:
Gibson ES-345, Squire Bass VI, Martin D12-20, Roland GR-500, Korg X911, Yamaha Flute, Korg VC-10, Roland VO-1, Roland VP-03, Greco Electric Bass, Hagstrom Swede Bass, Roland Jupiter-6, Roland Juno-60, Roland SH-2, Studio Electronics Boomstar SEM, Moog Prodigy, Sequential Prophet X, Roland SE-02, Rhodes 73 MKI Satellite, Eventide H9, Slingerland Drums, Zildjian Cymbals, Rogers and Ludwig Snares.