Robert Miller’s demo arrived in my pigeon hole a few months ago. Fighting the temptation to load the disc up with everything on his home PC, the new Sydney producer cut just three tracks onto the 12 minute and 20 second disc. For a first go from a musician whose tastes seem to run to indie rock rather than dark electronics, it’s a surprising listen. First up, Want From You starts with the sound of rain falling outside Miller’ Newtown terrace. He knows his way around a bass synth, and when it arrives, the dull thuds and eerie wash fill the spectrum. Almost a minute in, he introduces a tinny breakbeat that would sound thin anywhere else. His palette is pretty simple. Two and a half minutes in some rather brutal cuts in the tape give way to an organ-driven melody and Miller’ plaintive and arch half Bowie half Reznor voice. His restraint gives the simple lyrics a sense of depth that’s only amplified by the heavy ambience. Sadly, second track Aliens and Alcohol is a far more typical affair. The riff-by-numbers, drum-machine-driven beats and weak cliched lyrics sound more Sigue Sigue Sputnik than Aphex Twin. To its credit, the whole thing does degrade into a cool distorted break at the end. Fortunately that’s not where the short sharp set ends. Miller’ bass synth starts the final track, along with the slowed down relentlessness of a techno-on-33 beat. A cover of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Modern Romance, Miller’ voice is perfectly accompanied by an almost three-dimensional wall of glitchy granular sound that writhes and scratches like sand.
Find out more from milkrun at myspace.
