Chorus

Australian four-piece Mildlife’s distinctive blend of disco, jazz funk, electronica and psychedelia is a niche they’ve very much made their own. They meld elements of mid-seventies Herbie Hancock/Eddie Henderson-type fusion jazz, the most sinuous and sensuous of disco and funk rhythms, put their instruments through lots of FX, use retro synth voicings from that mid-70s period when a reverb-ed Moog solo was the most futuristic sound around, and occasionally add light, close harmony and falsetto vocals that have a slightly detached feel. Chorus is full of elongated vamps and solo sections, tracks that have an ebb and flow to their arrangements, that build, release, and switch gears with apparent ease, the band’s supa-high quality musicianship making the whole thing seem deceptively easy. The over-9-minute title track is an exemplar of the Mildlife sound, a brooding, building, space-disco jazz-funk odyssey filled with vocoders, phased guitars, gently morphing synth washes, liquid funk bass and plenty of mono synth soloing. Chorus is a highly accomplished, part-serious/part-hedonist retro-future delight.