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| Sputnikmusic |
 On November-18, 2008, Las Vegas quartet The Killers released their polarizing third LP ‘Day & Age’. On the album’s lead single, front-man Brandon Flowers asked the question “Are we human, or are we dancer?” Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m human. Now if he had asked “Are we human, or are we rocker?”, then maybe I would have been an alien! It is fair to state that yours truly is not exactly the world’s biggest fan of dance music. Yet, just three days earlier on November-15, a man by the name of Benjamin Plant – under the moniker of Miami Horror - released an EP titled ‘Bravado’… And it made me think again. It may have had something to do with the 21 minute length, but these five tracks had something about them which not only made the body move, but were also impressively catchy and strangely captivating.Despite having a full-length album practically ready to go just a few months later, Plant’s debut LP went through a tumultuous gestation period which saw him throw out many recordings simply because he felt they had become “too dated”. Furthermore, when he subsequently felt the album was ready to hit the shelves, a painstaking back-and-forth between artist and label ensued, which resulted in continuous tweaking of songs that delayed the LP’s release by over a year! Fortunately, there were a few positives to come from the deferment, the most vital of which was Plant assembling Miami Horror as a true quartet that he could feel comfortable within – both live and on record. Through all the trials and tribulations, ‘Illumination’ is finally here… And it was thankfully well worth the wait. Another benefit to eventuate as a consequence of the delay in release was Plant’s ability to use guest vocalists on ‘Illumination’. While guitarist Josh Moriarty provides lead vocals on many tracks, ‘I Look To You’ effectively utilizes dreamy kiwi singer Kimbra Johnson. Her vocals, the funky bass and lush soundscapes all merge together to result in what is essentially accessible electro-pop. The real revelation however is three appearances from Neon Indian’s Alan Palomo… Both ‘Holidays’ and closer ‘Ultraviolet’ contain that same air of seductive mystery which the ‘Bravado’ EP carried; Dancefloor anthems that magically double as relaxing, laid-back tunes in the mould of Stardust’s 1998 hit ‘Music Sounds Better With You’ (which Plant has remixed in the past). Better yet is lead single ‘Sometimes’; a smooth as silk ditty that glides along effortlessly and never feels cluttered despite the numerous layers of sound it contains....full text |
| Thevine |
| There’s been talk of Miami Horror being some “psychedelic indie-electronic” hybrid, but there’s not much psych on the Melbourne act’s long-gestating first album. As for electronics, a shift from one-man creations to full-band tours means more live instrumentation than ever. What this is, then, is wide-screen pop with spongy synths and retro-disco flourishes. More often than aiming for the dancefloor, these songs recall the soft, summery swoon of chillwave, only without the micro-genre’s no-budget bite. That’s not a complaint – more a simple fact of shared influences – but it does make for an album stranded somewhere between pleasantly distracting and numbingly transient. A bit of a marathon at 14 fairly long songs, Illumination leisurely ticks a handful of boxes: a couple of spacey instrumentals, cameos from Neon Indian’s Alan Palomo, hazy segues, breezily evocative song titles, and some percolating disco workouts. The latter come off quite well, between the blissful ‘Summersun’, the half-urgent ‘Ultraviolet’, and the single ‘I Look To You’; a minor miracle of bubbling bass and Chic melodies, co-written by Dappled Cities’ Tim Derricourt and featuring a candy-coated vocal turn by Melbourne singer Kimbra. The album could have used several more songs like this, although perhaps that would have gotten in the way of the thoughtful daze founder/frontman Benjamin Plant is looking to curate here. Some tasteful New Order influence surfaces on the more dance-minded ‘Sometimes’, while Swedish singer MAI brings a faint melancholy to the nagging synth line of ‘Echoplex’ and some Ratatat guitar tickles ‘Imagination (I Want You To Know)’. The endearingly cheesy single ‘Moon Theory’ finds a happy medium between navel-gazing introspection and throbbing pop grandeur, and the appropriately titled ‘Soft Light’ matches Plant’s gentle smear of a voice with dreamy trappings and a persistent thrust that wouldn’t be out of character for Dappled Cities. All of these tunes are enjoyable enough while they’re unfolding, yet each slips immediately into the ether the moment the next is loaded and released....full text |
| Feedthedogmusic |
| If you follow the blogs, you know Miami Horror’s debut full-length Illumination has been a long time coming. The young Australian producer, Benjamin Plant, who also tours under the Miami Horror name as a four-piece live band and recorded this album with them, first roused ears in 2007, in the electro-house scene that was starting to become referred to as “blog-house”. Of course no one likes the term, or its implications (except maybe blog-made hacks like The Hood Internet) — but the truth of the matter is the emergence of music blogs dedicated to the growing electro-house movement, as well as aggregators like Hype Machine and Elbo.ws making them all searchable, is exactly what created the impetus for an act like Miami Horror to reach a wide, growing, international fanbase. Without blog-house, I doubt anyone would be referring to this record as “highly anticipated”, but Illumination is just that. When Miami Horror mp3s first began circulating in 2007, there were a handful of brilliant remixes (mostly of fellow Australians like Grafton Primary and the already-blown-up Midnight Juggernauts) and one original track – the infinitely catchy “Don’t Be On With Her”. More remixes leaked out over the months, but more original material didn’t surface until 2008′s Bravado EP, a fairly lackluster and disappointing release showcasing an artist who had yet to find his own sound. The truth is its difficult being an electronic act out of Melbourne these days without resorting to Cut Copy imitation. In Australia it seems its all they want to hear. After all, this is the continent that brought us Kylie Minogue and buys a great deal of her records – in the Melbourne club scene, they want to hear house and disco, and the Cut Copy disco-house dance-punk whatever-you-want-to-call-it sound has proven to be a fairly successful formula in the area. Midnight Juggernauts have yet to prove themselves as much more than a fairly formidable Cut Copy copy, and at times Miami Horror have a hard time veering far enough away themselves. The trouble with this kind of imitation is that the Cut Copy sound when played by Cut Copy is itself somewhat generic and bores after repetition without variety. Spread out amongst rising young Australian indie acts who lack the impressive production skill that Cut Copy clearly possess, and you’ve created one of the most derivative, uninteresting, and inescapable local indie scenes that’s emerged in the last five years. Americans may be less sympathetic to a situation like this, where if a musician is dissatisfied with the music coming from their hometown in Portland they can always drive up to Seattle, down to the Bay or L.A. – or fly to Austin, or Brooklyn, Baltimore, wherever – all without showing anyone their passport. Melbourner Benjamin Plant of Miami Horror does not possess such luxuries....full text |
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