Milosh & Chequerboard | Belltable @ Red Cross Hall | Monday October 27

ELECTRIC SOUL
Milosh coasts the line between electronic & acoustic music and brings this beautiful meeting of voice and sounds to Limerick for one night of very special music
Canadian act Milosh makes a welcome return to Limerick this October, in a series of select dates around Ireland, as part of a European tour.  Based in Toronto, Canada, Milosh is no stranger to Irish audiences after his debut here in November 2007 as part of Donal Dineen and the Model Niland’s innovative alternative music series A Month of Sundays. Milosh has returned many times since, and has recently signed to independent Berlin based record company !K7.  Probably best known for its innovative DJ-Kicks compilations, !K7 is a largely electronic label where Milosh’s label mates include Henrik Schwarz, Erlend Øye, The Herbaliser and A Guy Called Gerald.

The brainchild of Mike Milosh and now a live two-piece, Milosh occupies that near impossible-to-describe musical space that drifts between the minimalism of electronica and the warmth of acoustic singer/songwriters, with some soulful vocals thrown in for good measure making music for the mind, body and spirit. Introspective, intimate, sensual electro-folk steeped in perfumed melancholy and luscious romance which combines beats, samples, guitars, strings and the most silken falsetto voice since prime-time Smokey Robinson.

Since their debut with Dineen at Month of Sundays Cork, Milosh have continued the Dineen connection, playing live on his Today FM Show; The Small Hours, and most recently appearing on his Body and Soul Stage at the Electric Picnic.

Milosh arrives back on these shores having just released a new album, iii with !K7. His first two albums, You Make Me Feel and Meme released on Plug Research earned warm reviews that likened his different musical shadings to Radiohead, Depeche Mode, Cocteau Twins, Jamie Lidell, Brian Eno and even caramel-voiced R&B crooner D’Angelo.  But the truth is, Milosh sounds too much like himself for any of these labels to really capture the essence of his sound. iii contains his richest, most luminously seductive music yet. A musical journal of exile and loneliness, sunshine and birdsong, it was written and largely recorded during a year-long stay on the tropical Thai island of Koh Samui.

A poetic lyricist, it is Mike’s outstanding voice that gives each track the soul and warmth that lifts them out of the electronica stable; these are not your standard electronic tracks with vocals layered on top, rather the vocal element of stand-out tracks like Something Good, Frozen Pieces, The City or It’s Over (From Foggy Notions/Dineen mix of summer ‘07) is muted and stretched to the point where his voice becomes just another instrument in the tapestry of the song.  Mike says, “I try to capture the moments that are my life in the songs that I create and try to ride that thin line of mixing technology with some heart and I try not to cloud the original intention of the song.”

The tracks on iii combine the best of both Milosh’s cerebral electronica and soulful singer-songwriter sides, stirring deep emotions with lush arrangements, honeyed vocals and delicately deconstructed beats. “ There are really sad moments on the record, but I am not sure people will interpret the same things as happy or sad.” Milosh explains.  “I enjoy throwing contradictions into songs, like when the lyrics are really happy but the melody’s sad - or vice versa. Whenever I listen to music I take my own feelings from it anyway, so hopefully if someone likes my record, they will take their own things from it. I don’t think you should try and control that, you just put something honest out there and it takes on its own life. It’s a personal record, so I guess my hope is people will have a personal connection with it. That’s what I’m going for, it’s not party music; it’s all about listening and indulging in it. Because that’s the kind of music I like.”

A cellist from pre-school he went on to study drums and voice in college and there is certainly something in the subtlety and the structured beauty of his work that must owe a great debt to this training. Each element feels considered and not a sound seems out of sync.

But for all their layers of electronic construction what immediately strikes is that these tracks work as songs, and would be as effective stripped back to basics, as Mike and Paul illustrated brilliantly at an in-studio session on Donal Dineen’s Small Hours show last year.

Irish musician Chequerboard, aka John Lambert, will join Milosh for the Limerick show on Monday October 27th.  A residency in Sligo’s Model Arts and Niland Gallery in 2007 led Lambert to the writing and recording of his critically acclaimed album Penny Black. Garnering 5 stars from the Irish Times Penny Black is an astonishingly beautiful album, and certainly one of 2008’s finest.

Milosh & Chequerboard play The Red Cross Hall on Bank Holiday Monday October 27th

http://www.myspace.com/milosh
http://www.chequerboard.com
http://www.belltable.ie