Like so many bands, British trio MiXE1 has teased and taunted rich attention with a host of ear grabbing encounters but have yet to fully ignite the sparks set through those imaginative success deserving releases. It is easy though to suggest and expect that break through with the band’s new album Reflections; a collection of striking tracks combining to create their finest most striking moment yet.
From a solo project created in 2010 by Mike Evans (Vocals, Synths), MiXE1 has grown into a formidable creative proposition with the addition of Lee Towson (Guitars, Live Bass, Synths, Vocals) and Lee O’Brien (Drums, Synths, Samples). Similarly their sound has evolved and blossomed across EPs and a well-received debut album as electronic adventure has increasingly aligned with alternative and rapacious rock tenacity. As Reflections shows, it is music and imagination which continues to explore and discover greater depths; the new album embracing a broader canvas of sound as the snarl of metal, boisterousness of pop, and epic rock enterprise all collude with the band’s already established creative instincts.
With the release also seeing the band joined by a host of guests across its increasingly magnetic body, Reflections opens up with its title track, the song looming in from an instantly busy distance on a tide of synth and guitar to swiftly establish an inescapably tempestuous and gripping lure. Evans’ vocal roar carries a similarly ferocious edge, attitude still lining the melodic prowess which soon springs from his throat amidst the compelling storm. With hungry hooks and fiery melodies igniting the multi-flavoured and easily devoured trespass, the song continued to nag, enthral, and incite.
The following Get Out Alive rises with a similar recipe of flavours but quickly sets out its individual character woven on melody, aggression, and eager imagination. As its predecessor, its infectious breath and moves are at odds with but the perfect companion to raw ferocity; again a union which attacks and seduces within a stirring tapestry of sound and texture.
Though released a couple of years back, Don’t Break Apart could be described as the lead single of the album and has lost none of its potency over time. In many ways the moment the band’s sound marked its latest evolution with its earlier release, its potential has been fully realised across the album and still fires up the appetite as it builds on its pulsating electronic start to cast sonic virulence upon the senses. Gentle caresses lead to inflamed eruptions and compelling melodic intimation builds to dark and rapacious incitement, the track pure magnetic and intimate drama only elevated by the additional contributions of Lawrie Bayldon (Studio-X) on synths and Erlend Eilertsen (Essence of Mind) alongside Richard K (Machine Rox) on vocals.
The rousing Spectrum is next up, immediately casting a melodic web with metallic strands around a robust rhythmic canter, the track a voracious mix of pop catchiness and electro shadows all toned with flirtatious temptation while successor, the equally irresistible Align revels in vociferous industrial instincts to create its very own contagious incitement. There is a great irritable edge to the electro rock based outing, antagonism soaked in melodic tempting reminding of former UK band Ghost In The Static.
From a dystopian atmosphere Nexus steps forward next, the track another with an industrial rock breeding embracing and employing a wealth of electro and rock strands to cast its magnetic web. Rabbit Junk’s JP Anderson joins Evans on vocals, his raw antipathy a tantalising companion to the more flirtatious harmonic tones of MiXE1’s frontman. Yet again ears were gripped and vocal chords incited with Fall straight after thrusting its rapacious rock ‘n’ roll upon the senses to similarly take control of body and attention with increasing rewards if ultimately only teasing the heights of the previous tracks. Still though, it just captivated before Monochrome with Roman Marisak (Professional Murder Music, Spacetime) guesting on vocals provides the darkest and most corrosive moments of the release whilst forging another of the album’s striking propositions in sound and enterprise revealing richer depths by the listen.
Yet one more major highlight comes with next up Creations, the song casting an atmospheric suggestiveness from which emotive and melodic imagination blossom their radiance. At its volatile heart is the vocal coupling of Evans and Natasha Cox (Mankind Is Obsolete, AL1CE, Alice Underground), both pure enticement and the latter simply mesmeric within a climate which simmers, seduces, and subsequently erupts with physical and emotional turbulence.
The final pair of Authors and Quasar ensure the album’s close is as stirring and impressive as what came before; the first an eager slice of electro rock as anthemically infectious as it is intimately heart bred while the latter takes the listener across an ethereal landscape before taking a spatial flight enriched with celestial harmonics and spirit raising dynamics. It is a glorious and imaginative finale exposing yet another aspect in the creative kaleidoscope of MiXE1.
The Hertfordshire band has never been a stranger to providing striking and seriously enjoyable encounters but Reflections simply eclipses all that has come before so surely the time is ripe for MiXE1 to be embroiled in the attention and success their music if not before now definitely deserves.
Reflections is out August 9th with pre-ordering available now @ https://mixe1.bandcamp.com/album/reflections
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Pete RingMaster 23/07/2019
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
Bring You Down opens things up, the song a strenuous wall of riffs and rhythms swiftly entwined in wiry sonic enterprise and vocal expression. Its intensity and power is a commanding and forceful wind but still allowing room for the melodic prowess and inventive weave of heavy rock and steely metal textures to make their persuasion. A Gravity Kills feel with a fierce fire to it graces the seriously engaging mix as vocals seduce and roar to match the journey of the music across the impressing start to Remedy. It is a potent persuasion continuing with Consequence. The scent of Nine Inch Nails hinted at in the first is a stronger flavouring to the second song, but equally there is an element of UK band MiXE1 and Deftones at play too as it reveals its own distinctive tapestry of searing sonic endeavour and electronic exploration.
Machine Rox. The second track also unleashes an insatiable energy and charge to its pulsating persuasion, synths swirling feistily around the senses whilst guitars and beats cast a heavier and darker confrontation in the relentlessly infectious endeavour. With a glorious solo adding to the proposition, the song continues the outstanding start to the release and is immediately emulated by the heavy and catchy swing of Losers In Your Game. A Marilyn Manson-esque swagger fuels carnivorous riffs and eager rhythms whilst vocally Richard K prowls ears with a provocative narrative cast by his distinctive tones, the mix another slab of inescapable virulence.
around those persistently provocative textures. The equally as tantalising voice of Lindqwister is soon caresses the senses too around that jabbing rhythmic punctuation, the mix of forceful tempting and seductive soothing an enthrallingly magnetic proposition. As the song bounces along thoughts of The Cure, certainly vocally and in the shadowed essences which lurk within the bright sounds, and of A-ha musically make their suggestions. It is a masterful start swiftly matched by Arizona Lights. The second song casts a hazy yet crystalline ambience before eager beats and similarly feisty electronic grooves wrap around ears. As with the first track, and the majority of the album, there is a familiarity to the encounter but a recognisable spicing which only enhances the fun and potency of the offerings. Here a Thomas Dolby/Paul Haig like air makes hints as the song unveils its sparkling revelry.
