The Darkness Of Error – Gordon Midgley
The latest EP release by Gordon Midgeley is a very fine body of work and contains 7 instrumental tracks spanned over a playing time of 26 minutes. This is Gordon’s 3rd solo release and I have to say with everything he is doing lately he seems to be getting better and better, not that I am complaining about his previous solo releases and his work he does with Nathan Jon Tillett in their Napiers Bones project.
I came across Gordon a few years back on Soundcloud and for such an unknown artist as many them are on there, I have to say I most impressed with not only him being a very good multi talented musician, but also how he can so skilfully craft, compose, arrange and layer out such great music and songs. This latest body of work is quite cinematic and not only contains dark moods, but some very sensitive pieces of beauty all skilfully crafted out with the use of his guitars, bass, keyboards and an array of pedal effects to give it that touch of ambience and space.
The EP of fine tracks opens up with Preemptive Retaliation which no doubt is quite a dark and eerie haunting piece with it’s effective opening which builds up very well and has a great bass line that grabs you immediately along with the percussion and then builds into a crescendo of screaming guitar which displays the sense of fear one would encounter perhaps in a horror or thriller based movie. It also uses very well utilised intensifying effects to round it all off very well too.
Well if the opening track perhaps might have been enough to give you the willies and got your heart thumping faster than it normally would and got your blood running, you will be pleased to know that Gordon changed the mood into something more of a beauty with track 2 Last Letter. A beautiful piece of work this one and played with bright chords on the electric guitar in a very melodic way. It’s quite daunting and is blended in with lovely phased and very effective lead lines from his guitar, with even more beautiful notes being played from his guitar that come in around the half way point and round it all off superbly.
Old Good Days is another piece that uses phased effects to great effect and on this they are like a Whale singing you a beautiful song from the ocean. More great lead lines from Gordon’s guitar play along to it all, and even though this one is some 16 seconds longer than the previous track, for some reason it all seems to be over much sooner. I can only presume that’s the real enjoyment one gets from such a fine piece.
It Only Happens To Other People is very much like a continuation or a part 2 of the previous track and is the longest track out of the bunch here weighing in at 7:22. Once again we get more singing from the Whale in the ocean and this one really drifts it’s way across the seas beauteously and wonderfully calm, warm and tranquil. There is no doubt Gordon knows his way around guitar effects and utilises them superbly to craft out this gorgeous journey. You can quite easily sit back, relax and float along with it.
Next up is the EP’s title track The Darkness Of Error and this one turns up the heat a bit and is electrifying, and unleashes it’s murky dark terror upon you. It’s only a short piece but says enough to merit it as my favourite track here, though there are quite a few contenders throughout this 26 minute album. Next up happens to be the shortest track on the album at some 1:56 entitled Vanishing Point and I often wonder if this was originally a piece of work that never made his solo debut album Vanishing Age he done back in 2016. It’s very much a drifting soundscape that still works very well here.
The short album is then brought to an end with a piece of magic and no doubt perhaps what I would have originally said was my favourite of the bunch and it was a very hard decision to give it to the title track. Safe I have to say has a very familiar feel about it and is very much like Pink Floyd’s “Be Careful With That Axe Eugene” only here it is Gordon that’s slinging his axe into the fine piece and putting his own brandishing edge and style to it. It really is the icing on the cake and a grand way to end off what I can only say is a very enjoyable short album over it’s 26 minutes.
Summary…
To sum up my review of The Darkness Of Error by Gordon Midgley. Overall It’s a very fine body of work that has plenty of intense drama, about it and leans towards progressive rock cause it also has the power to rock and weave it’s way along in parts. Gordon himself says that he more or less put the material together from pieces he had left over from doing other albums and various projects he was working on, and it also contains improvisations as well as composition. Which is one of the reasons he is offering it up at a buy now name your price and you can even get it for free if you wish.
I myself think the work here and the material upon it, is very good and well worthy of paying something for it, even if to just give the man the money for a pint at his local bar. It’s certainly something that rocks and floats my boat and his ability as a musician and a guy who knows how to churn out so much great music as always impressed me. I also feel he gets better with every new release too and this comes highly recommended from me.
01. Preemptive Retaliation 3:42.
02. Last Letter. 3:04.
03. Old Good Days. 3:20.
04. It Only Happens To Other People. 7:22.
05. The Darkness Of Error. 2:44.
06. Vanishing Point. 1:56.
07. Safe. 3:52.
Lee’s overall score rating 8/10.
You can listen to this fine EP here on Bandcamp which also has his other complete solo works on too. https://gordonmidgley.bandcamp.com/album/the-darkness-of-error
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