It's been nearly three years since I first tipped Middleman for big things, since then they have expanded from a trio into a quartet and are now ready to put out the band's debut album, Following The Ghost, that will hopefully see them living up to that early promise.
They are based in London and recorded at Bear Bites Horse Recording Studios with Wayne Adams recording and mixing the album for Middlemen who are Noah Alves, Ted Foster, Harper Maury and Rory White.
The album opens with CSN they clearly don't like the Young part of the acronym, probably because they sound more like Ruben or Amusement Parks On Fire, kinetic indie punk with explosions of guitar behind laconic vocals, looking back to classic sixties ideals through a modern lens.
Distractions are what we all need now, they are imagining a future where we are fully engaged, no longer needing all those endless Distractions, salvoes of guitar intensify feelings, pain of modern times.
Carry The Lie keep on spouting those words till you really believe them, or allow your lies to be destroyed, by modern hard core indie punk, one slacker riff at a time, that won't send you round the bend any time soon.
All But The Flame sounds like a lost Pavement classic, they are hoping to keep the fires burning and scorch us with blistering guitar interplay, over the solid backbone drumming. Vacant Days for someone lost wandering through the park, trying to find themselves, desperate feelings accentuated by crunchy guitars and all the substances you've consumed to try to fill the void.
The Furthest Place where you go to hear scintillating guitars and while away your angst, bouncing off the walls ignoring what's going on outside, while still needing to change things for the better.
Long Goodbye will you never go, or do they have to drag you out, flurries of intense notes scream out of the guitars at you, why won't you listen. Why do you still roll around the floor like some pre-teen tantrum.
Morning All The Time doesn't mean they just want to sleep their lives away on endless mornings, intense like Drop Nineteens or Velvet Crush while they create their own Teenage Symphonies for learning to swim and navigate the choppy waters of the 2020's.
The album closes with the title track Following The Ghost that keeps the guitars dirty, loud and right in our faces, while they try to make sure, they follow their own path rather than the ghosts of previous generations, in time for the guitars to expire at the end of an impressive debut album.
Find out more at https://middlemanldn.bigcartel.com/ https://middlemanldn.bandcamp.com/album/following-the-ghost https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092499414099 https://www.instagram.com/middle_____man/
