The Recordings of The Middle East

The Middle East are a seven-piece band from Townsville, Australia. They formed in 2005 and have been justifying the hype behind them pretty much ever since. The Recordings of The Middle East was released in 2008 in Australia but was re-released in UK in March this year. This is a very special band and they are god enough to have performed alongside Doves and Grizzly Bear. They have also been named by Marcus Mumford as the most inspiring new band around, which is high praise indeed. The instruments that are present on this EP are electric and acoustic guitars, hand percussion, drums, trumpet, piano and glockenspiel amongst others. The genre of the band is very hard to classify, they are listed as indie on their MySpace page but there are definitely elements of folk, pop, post rock, country and ambience present.

The EP starts off with The Darkest Side. This song includes lyrics that really make you think; “If I died on my bedroom floor/Would you cry on your bedroom floor?/And tattoo my name underneath your arm.” When you listen to it, you feel like your heart is being tickled along with the tickling of the guitar. This song seems the most sure of what genre it is, not fluctuating like other tracks on the EP, it sticks to and indie-folk feel throughout its five minutes of twinkling scenic lushness. My favourite song is probably Blood, but it is a hard decision to make. The song Blood has been the base for most of the hype behind The Middle East and when I listen to it I can’t help but feel like lying in a meadow in the middle of July, clichéd as it may be this seems like the perfect setting to listen to this song. Despite lyrics like; “With that ugly, terrible thing/Those papers for divorce/And a lonely ring,” this song gives off a rather happy feel to it and there is a beautiful mix between the lead singer’s calm voice and a high female harmony. The simplicity of the whistling and the glockenspiel work amazingly well together and the song is allowed to slowly build into a beautiful raging thing. More of the intimate intensity and beautifully complex harmonies are present throughout the rest of this EP as well as the orchestral indie pop blending with the earthy effortlessness of modern indie folk.

Overall this is a brilliant album and is perfect for when you’re just sitting in your room and what to get away from everything. All of the lyrics are cleverly and carefully chosen making whatever is being described as vivid as possible. Also, I think of Antlers’ great album Hospice of last year. The Middle East appeal to a very wide audience because their genre is so unspecific, this genre is also not original but they are better than most other bands that are trying to make it. This debut EP from self confessed “small town folks” is filled with other worldly charm and is one of the finest you are likely to hear. Look out for this band in the future as they are destined for greatness and they may have to retract that previous statement.

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