North Bay, Ontario-based ambient electronic producer Miles MacMillan first emerged back in 2003 with his debut album offering “Alienated’ and now, three years later, this independently released follow-up “Futureworld’ shows MacMillan returning to his previous space and sci-fi coloured themes. Apparently chiefly inspired by MacMillan’s love of 1970s sci-fi cinema, this 7 track track mini-album shows him working with retro-tinged synths and electronics to create a predominantly ambient / downbeat collection that tends towards optimistically blissful landscapes. While the unmistakable analogue synth of the likes of Wendy Carlos and Moroder is definitely present as an influence however, the results unfortunately end up leaning far closer to New Age chill-out or dated ambient house than the filmic atmospheres the aforementioned reference points might suggest.
Opener “Alpha Sector 1′ certainly unfurls promisingly, with eerie electronic sweeps cutting a vapor trail through the gathering background drones, but once the retroid drum machine rhythms kick in, it’s reduced to being a passable but extremely dated-sounding slice of ambient electro-house, the sort of thing perhaps that Alex Paterson or Spooky might’ve released around 14 years ago. Downbeat track “Orbiting Outpost’s doesn’ fare much better, placing plastic-sounding synths over a generic backing of dowtempo hiphop rhythms in a fusion that sounds more like incidental television stock music than anything else, while “The Fugitive’ noodling keyboards and clicking metronomic rhythms resemble electro pioneer Paul Hardcastle’s latter-day explorations into chilled electronic jazz-lounge. “The Clone Room’ at least manages to introduce a more intriguing edge by paring back the brightly optimistic synths in favour of more dark, menacing shades, placing vast brooding synth pads beneath Black Celebration-era Depeche Mode keyboards and sparse electro rhythms, but unfortunately it ends up being the most memorable moment on offer here. While there are certainly some interesting ideas on offer here, “Futureworld’ ends up feeling like an album that never really gets let off its leash, resulting in a collection that feels more like coffee table chillout or Jarre-lite incidental background music than the deeply immersive “space’ experience otherwise suggested.
Chris Downton
