From the opening bars of the potent energy of Front Row right through to the closing bars of On & On Milange had me utterly absorbed. The former, a glorious anthem celebrating live music that has you imagining you are right there front and centre, while the latter announces its arrival with a low bass rumble before forging a path of low key menace, the spoken word vocal sitting somewhere between despair and rage and the clamorous soundtrack matching it’s absorbing intensity.
And across the five songs in between, Milange draw you in with their engaging narratives in the lyrics, and have you thrilled by the dynamic magnetism and dramatic fervour of the accompanying music. Songs like Confessional demonstrate an accomplished slow build to a cacophonous conclusion, while Greyhound quickly rises to full throttle with a break swathed in swirling guitar feedback and questioning lyrics. The Nightkeeper kicks off with funk styled guitar hooks and soars into the ether, before the ire of Man Like Me takes over, lyrics spat out with acid tongued venom. The penultimate song Waiting… drags you through the emotional wringer with its heartstring tugging tenderness.
When you hear the sheer quality of Milange’s end product It’s hardly surprising that if you were to ask just about anyone involved in the young music scene in Scotland who they’d recommend, more often than not the name Milange slips from their tongues without a second thought, this band deserves to be huge.