Release Date: September 09th 2023. Record Label: Self Released. Formats: CD/DD
Long Way Back From The Familiar Place We've Never Been To - Tracklisting
1.Cloudgazer 05:24
2.Sweet Mommy 01:46
3.Some Warsaw Junkie 04:52
4.The Coldest Boy 03:19
5.Long Way Back From The Familiar Place We've Never Been To 04:42
6.Dzielna Street Recovery Center 02:25
Review
It’s been a while since I’ve ventured into Drone/Doomgaze Solo Artist Mila Cloud dark edgy industrial based world. That was way back in Jan 2023 when I reviewed their 2022 Release Graylight. Now Mila returns with a new EP that’s a concept record of sorts which is described below:
“This album is about Warsaw in the 90's. It tells the story about blocks of flats, clouds, night buses, junkies, parks and backyards.
Some places have probably never been as we remember them now. We've never been there, so it's time to come back.”
I can only comment on the music itself and not the overall story as I’m from the UK but I can see similarities in the hometown where I grew up. However, this is about the EP itself with Long Way Back From The Familiar Place We've Never Been To being a more surreal and Psychedelic based Drone journey compared to Graylight.
This has a more unsettling Post-Rock based sound with Mila adding layers of Ambient Doomgaze effects. The music is beautifully slow paced and distinctively mellow with an air of menacing Industrial grooves appearing more prominently on the excellent third track Some Warsaw Junkie which has a more seedy experimental sound. The song does capture a sense of bleak reality despite the absence of vocals and lyrics. Mila has a wonderful talent for capturing the finer details of human emotion and frailty with the long drawn out Doomgaze sounds that shows brief moments of Psychedelic Post Rock before changing back to a more nightmarish world.
The whole EP follows the same destructive and droned out path with Mila creating an EP that feels mostly like an extended track broken down into individual chapters. The music despite its harsh textures can be quite soothing and melodic with this being another standout release from Mila Cloud. The use of nightmarish FUZZ is another clever way of bringing a more DISTORTED and HEAVIER sound to the record even when the quieter Ambient Post-Rock sounds are used more primarily compared to the harsh Droned Out noises that people may expect to be.
The production values are impressive indeed with MIla allowing themselves the perfect creative opportunity to let their music evolve and grow naturally. The Shoegaze or Doomgaze sound of the EP is the strongest aspect of the whole release which left me wanting to hear more.
Long Way Back From The Familiar Place We've Never Been To is another sublime release from Mila Cloud and should hopefully allow Mila Cloud to gain more notice within the Drone/Doom/Post-Rock underground scene.
Words by Steve Howe
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