Milton Star Press
WHEN THE HORN BLOWS. Single review by Jake Collins. July 2015
One of the great joys of music is finding a song that’s aged well. Music – like all aspects of art – has the ability to be timeless; to take the grace of time and not the wrinkles. Such was my surprise when I realised that ‘Things Fall Apart’ was in fact a new single as opposed to a forgotten gem from long ago. The influences are from times long passed but the outcome is as fresh as you could possible hope.
‘Things Fall Apart’ is the latest release from aspiring duo Milton Star. It opens with brooding strings, a real density of sound without like a jam session with too many guests. There isn’t much in the way of singing here, which works absolutely perfectly. Instead of leading the song along and taking the attention away from the beautifully melancholy music, it acts itself as an additional instrument. One brief verse of words are sewn into the track; they speak of desperation and misery. This adds an intensity to the rest of the music that follows, which is quite a genius move.
The outro is merciless in its goodbye, The harmonica chimes over the continued background of sound and truly acts as a particularly moribund valediction. The aspects of blues/country here but it’s been dragged into a darker place by Milton Star. The band hold influences from the likes of The Velvet Underground and Captain Beefheart, right through to Ennio Morricone (Morricone’s influence mostly telling with the moving strings orchestrating the tone)). When an amalgamation of influences like those come together, there is usually either something quite spectacular or really rather futile mess.
It’s uncomfortably easy to sound like a sycophant when reviewing music that’s sent across to you, but this absolutely is a track that’s not just alluring but genuinely interesting. Moving forward, there’s scope for an album with the accomplished diversity that Nick Cave is rightly famed for. There’s also the chance of it becoming a mess and not working at all (cue picture of me pointing at a copy of ‘Sandinista!’). ‘Things Fall Apart’ is gladly a nod toward the former.
SOGO MAGAZINE. Excerpt from feature by GUS IRONSIDE. June 2015
WHISPERINANDHOLLERIN. Single Review by Christopher Nosnibor. June 2015.
Our Rating:********
The last single release by Irvine Welsh-endorsed Scottish duo Milton Star was a compelling slice of dark country, and ‘Things Fall Apart’ shows that this is a vein they’re continuing to mine and uncovering an embarrassment of riches in the process.
The tremolo guitar crashes shimmer back in the distance while a rolling piano motif builds a dark atmosphere that conjures cinematic scenes. Brooding and bleak and augmented with beautifully sad strings, ‘Things Fall Apart’ evokes more emotions in four minutes than most artists manage across a whole album
PLANET OF SOUND Single review. May 29th 2015.
Milton Star follow their hugely successful double A side record ‘Salvation’ and ‘Sorryville’ with the release of their new single ‘Things Fall Apart’. The track is another example of duo Alan Wyllie and Graeme Currie’s unerring ability to create wonderfully atmospheric stories about love, loss and regret framed in beautifully structured melodies and carried by an expansive tremolo wall of sound and a dark soul.
For those familiar with simultaneously released debut, ‘Things Fall Apart’ finds them in similar territory with a tale of the darker side of the human condition, referencing the destructive capacity of depression and all it entails. “I think we all have that capacity to fall foul of our inner demons at times.” says Alan “and the pace of modern life and the inherent shallowness of relationships lived through social media & technology can detach us a little from the real world and the problems many suffer from, itching just below the surface.”
From the first Duane Eddy inspired twang underpinned by wandering strings and rhythmic arpeggio piano we are in cinematic noire territory and the accompanying video speaks volumes, the roll of the dice, the miniature Mariachis, the Mexicano tarot cards, the sinister skull-painted faces, the burlesque dancers – this is a beautifully tragic song rich in imagery.
Alan and Graeme have been collaborating in different guises dating back to the early days of post punk but these days the duo write and record their unique blend of indie and dark country in a converted church where Alan lives in Fife, which, as Alan explains, is pivotal in the writing process. “The things that feed the ideas and make the sound are the environment and acoustics here in the church and the setting of the surrounding countryside. Out in those fields you could be anywhere at any point in time, and that’s where the stories start to form.”
Graeme adds “Although we have a lot of shared musical influences like the Velvet Underground, Bowie and Roxy Music, I veer towards the more experimental side of things like Captain Beefheart whereas Alan likes a lot of early 50s vintage rock and country. Once you factor into that mix the cinematic soundtrack influences like Angelo Badalamenti and Ennio Morricone, that’s when the Milton Star sound comes together.”
PENNYBLACKMUSIC. Single review by John Clarkson. June 19th, 2015.
Milton Star capture that moment with their beautiful but bleak second single ‘Things Fall Apart’ when the world comes crashing in, when something so devastating happens that one feels that one is going to be permanently crushed by it.
The group, a duo consisting of Alan Wylie and Graeme Currie, who were both in 1970’s post punk band Thursdays, first formed in 2010, and have spent the last five years preparing and recording material in Wylie’s home studio in a converted church in rural Fife. Their debut album will come out on the excellent Edinburgh-based label Stereogram Recordings in October.
‘Things Fall Apart’ on the surface has an epic, widescreen sound. Slow-paced and sultry, it in fact makes a lot out of a little, each note from its small collection of instruments – a shimmering steel guitar, a swirling keyboard, the occasional crash of drums and in its final moments a beeezy harmonica – counting for a great deal.
Wylie’s lyrics, a mere eight lines in length, are also kept deliberately sparse and obtuse. One is never sure exactly what he is singing about, whether it is a death, the end of a love affair or something else entirely. When he sings, however, with his rich, baritone vocals the opening lines of “When my melancholy mind lies broken/When everything turns dark/When loneliness is my compadre/And when there is nowhere left to hide,” he speaks for most of us at some point in our lives.
‘Things Fall Apart’ is extraordinarily powerful. Melancholic and despairing at one level, it also proves at another redemptive. For this reviewer, there is unlikely to be a better single this year.
PENISTONE FM. Ryan Oxley. June 10th, 2015
“It’s not a case of ‘pulling at the heart strings’ with Milton Star. They take you somewhere else entirely. Broodingly dark alternative country never resonated more with me. A soundscape of beauty from north of the border. Utterly divine.”
BUCKET FULL OF NAILS. June 12th 2015
Having made their debut earlier this year with the double a-side singles “Salvation” and “Sorryville,” Scottish duo Milton Star channel Ennio Morricone as they conjure up the dusty noir of the American West.
On their riveting new single, “Things Fall Apart,” Alan Wyllie and Graeme Currie ride shotgun to a “dark passenger” as the blackness of resignation unfolds. Aided by stunning visuals, the video for “Things Fall Apart” documents a slow descent into a personal hell.
WHEN YOU MOTOR AWAY. Single Review by Scott Galloway. June 14th 2015
Scots duo Milton Star have become a musical drug of choice for this writer. Simple arrangements evocative of both the American west and the dark corners of your mind that one does not voluntarily confront. Their current offering is “Things fall Apart”. Presented below in video form, it presents a surrender to hopelessness and a slide to the bottom, accompanied by waves of tremolo guitar an rolling piano from Alan “Lug” Wyllie and Graeme “Kid” Currie.
THE RINGMASTER REVIEW, June 15, 2015
Like for most a sound to riot too is a treat, music to change or ignite the day essential, but just as potent and thrilling are compositions which invite you immerse deeply into their depths so you can conjure your own emotional and visual experiences. Music to get truly lost in is the forte of UK duo Milton Star as evidenced by their previous two-song offering Salvation/ Storyville. Now the Scottish band returns with new single Things Fall Apart and arguably their most immersive and provocative embrace of sound yet. It is enveloping, it is sultry, and it is powerfully mesmeric; simply the track is a sinister fever of dark country romance to chill the bones and ignite the passions.
Milton Star consists of Alan Wyllie and Graeme Currie, two songwriters/musicians whose history together encompasses numerous projects and collaborations going back to the early days of post punk and most notably The Thursdays and Fast Records. The pair also understands the potency of fusing cinematic suggestiveness with atmospheric aural imagination, and indeed as evidenced by their singles how to achieve such fusions. Creating their music in a converted church in Fife which is also Wyllie’s home, Milton Star is the riveting equivalent of Nick Cave, Helldorado, and Mark Lanegan awash with the craft and vision of an Ennio Morricone and David Lynch, but with their own identity
Straight away their new single has ears and thoughts engrossed, as a deep throaty tone resonates from within guitar, bass, and just the whole ambience of the piece. Things Fall Apart is an immediate seduction, its sombre gait and melancholic air a mesmeric croon on the senses reinforced by the grainy but vibrantly toned vocals. Whereas the band’s previous single had a slight mischievous essence, certainly to one of the songs, which reminded of Tombstone Three, this new proposition has an intimacy and drama which imposes itself on ears and appetite with more solemn intent. Its melodic prowess though brings smouldering warmth too, guitars and keys a haunting, at times almost regal caress inflamed with exotic hues that further enthral and spark the imagination.
The song is pure cinema, and pure aural temptation. Every listen increases its potency too, and from being a powerful successor to its stronger predecessor, Things Fall Apart has grown and evolved into the bands finest most pungent and thrilling incitement yet. Here is hoping an album is on the cards or at least a fuller adventure of an EP next.
THE REVUE: Music, Singles. June 19, 2015
Milton Star‘s latest single, “Things Fall Apart”, isn’t your typical country song. To even characterize it as country may be a disservice to the Scottish band. It is dark and brooding. It’s haunting yet gorgeous. It’s layered with numerous sounds that heightens the song to a completely different level that only few have been able to achieve with the genre. The closest comparable is Canadian collective Timber Timbre, who also have the ability to make something simple sound cinematic and breathtaking, which is what Milton Star have done.“Things Fall Apart” follows on Milton Star’s success split single – “Salvation” and “Sorryville” – that was released late last year. Both songs are really worth hearing.
XSNOISE – Turn The Noise Up!
MILTON STAR RELEASE DEBUT AA SINGLE ‘STORYVILLE / SALVATION’ – listen
Posted on January 13, 2015 by Mark Millar in New music, News
Milton Star are Alan Wyllie and Graeme Currie who write and record their unique blend of indie and dark country in a converted church ‘Milton’ located in darkest Fife, the building not only inspired the band name but, as Alan explains, is pivotal in the writing process. “The thing that feeds the ideas and make the sound are the environment and acoustics here in the church and setting of the surrounding countryside. To have that on tap every day is just wonderful, we’ve been writing together for maybe 30 years and nothing before has come close. We tend to work independently on ideas initially, bouncing ideas back and forth and then come together to flesh things out, but there’s no set pattern, sometimes it’s the words, sometimes the music, sometimes a story or a visual, it’s a pretty fluid process once we get going though.”
Each of their tracks is drenched in atmosphere – think Velvet Underground meets vintage Glen Campbell via Rick Rubin collaborating on the next David Lynch movie or soundtracking the latest HBO crime drama…
Alan and Graeme’s collaborations date back through many incarnations of live bands to the early days of post punk and a band called Thursdays who were signed to Fast Records. After some years spent out of the music scene, they came back together in 2010, reinvigorated by a mutual dissatisfaction for what they describe as a “mostly insipid modern music scene”, picking up the gauntlet to produce sweet structured melodies carried by an expansive tremolo wall of sound and a dark soul.
With such rich musical experience the duo’s influences are wide and varied, as Graeme says. “Being the age we are we go back to punk and beyond, that rich seam of creativity with Marc Bolan, Roxy Music, Bowie and Velvet Underground. For me I was always drawn to Beefheart and a lot of left field guitarists. That whole American CBGBs thing with Television, Talking Heads, Patti Smith – Marquee Moon is still my favourite album. If you go back further though to some of the pioneers, Scotty Moore, what an innovator, Link Wray – that sheer power, you listen to Rumble, blows you away every time…”
Alan adds “It was such a focus for me, the music, the visuals, I remember being fourteen and my older brother coming in to my room, throwing the 69 Velvets live album at me and saying, “learn that, you’re joining the band…” Every week having new music to buy and bands to see, we were spoiled and that sticks with you. But equally I love a lot of old country – its easy to dismiss Hank Williams, the Everlys, Cash – Roy Orbison especially, what a voice and the musical tension he generates is unique on something like In Dreams, where it just changes all the way through, no verse chorus standard structure… The great songwriters too – Jimmy Webb “And I need you more than want you and I want you for all time.” Beautiful – but you take that beauty, you scratch the surface and you mix in a big chunk of darkness, pain and sorrow…”
With shades of Soulsavers and Mark Lanegan evident, Milton Star’s debut AA side single tracks ‘Salvation’ and ‘Sorryville’ are the perfect marriage between brooding vocals and shimmering guitars underpinned by a driving beat. Wonderfully atmospheric guitarscapes paint vivid images of love, loss and regret lived out in one no-hope town to the next, in the bars, in shady motels and the highways and byways inbetween.
GIGSLUTZ
Milton Star – “Sorryville” single review. January 15th 2015.
An explosion of emotion ebbs its way throughout Milton Star’s ingenious fusion of indie rock and country, ‘Sorryville’ – making this song one of the most interesting things you’ll hear this week. A so-called mixture of the iconic Velvet Underground and Glen Campbell, Milton Star’s ‘Sorryville’ sparks attention from the onset, through its magnificent droning, dark and rocky edge.
Consisting of Alan Wyllie and Graeme Currie, – who produce their own unique genre of music in a converted church – the concept of Milton Star alone is extremely exciting and, with the release of ‘Sorryville’, the duo are gearing up for one hell of a ride.
THE RINGMASTER REVIEW
Milton Star – Salvation/Storyville
Posted by RingMaster on January 12, 2015
Always partial to music which is as cinematic as it is sonically expressive, and especially keen on dark and sultry aural adventures which embrace emotive shadows as eagerly as they do melodic intrigue, the debut single from Scottish band Milton Star has come as a bit of a treat. Consisting of the songs Salvation and Storyville, the double A-sided encounter is a gothic romance for the ears and imagination. The two tracks cast evocative landscapes of smouldering emotion and heavy atmospheric colour uniting indie and dark country in one enjoyable and darkly feverish encounter.
Milton Star is the duo of Alan Wyllie and Graeme Currie, two songwriters/musicians whose history together goes back to the early days of post punk and across numerous projects, most notably the Thursdays who were signed to Fast Records. Getting back together in 2010 after both had been absent from the music scene for a few years, Wyllie and Currie now in a converted church in Fife, create and record their songs with a sound which have drawn the description, “think Velvet Underground meets vintage Glen Campbell via Rick Rubin collaborating on the next David Lynch movie or sound-tracking the latest HBO crime drama…” It is a hint in the right direction but as Salvation alone shows, there is plenty more within the band’s broad soundscapes and intimate canvases.
The track is a dark croon seemingly bred on a dark folk mix of Nick Cave and Mark Lanegan aligned to the visual drama of Helldorado and a whisper of the raw danger in a Tombstone Three. It Picture 3opens on an instantly gripping stroll of heavy beats which is swiftly joined by the sultry flames of guitar and great dark throated yet melancholically elegant vocals. There is an immediate theatre to the song, especially when voice and guitar add their provocative textures to the portentous heavy bassline and the crisp swings of the drums. The track is glorious and increasingly spicy as the two musicians weave in tangy grooves and emotive melodies which often come in a great ‘yawn’ of sound. With additional fifties rock ‘n’ roll stroking its gothic poetry, the song leaves thoughts lost in a soulful landscape of adventure and ears basking in syrupy sonic goodness.
Its companion Storyville similarly offers an intensive climate of shadows, this time the first breath coming around a grizzled bassline which instantly enslaves attention as the atmospheric lure of the track expands its coaxing. Slightly lighter than its predecessor but no less imposing with its bordering on caliginous emotions and aural colour, the song shimmers and smoulders with raw radiance and evocative expression, it all across that unrelenting bass spine. Not quite matching Salvation but certainly as enthralling and exciting, the song completes an impressive first excursion into the dark climactic majesty of Milton Star’s sound.
The single is sure to spark strong anticipation in a great many for more; future Milton Star adventures which if they are as dramatic and thrilling as this will be devoured greedily and noisily.
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
LISTEN WITH MONGER – SINGLE REVIEW. Saturday, 10 January 2015
Milton Star – Sorryville/Salvation (Stereogram Recordings)
Release Date: 12th January 2015
In deepest, darkest Fife there is a converted church from which the strains of duo Milton Fife can oft be hear a-wafting on the dreich Scottish air. This, their debut single, would have made for an eerie sound as ‘Salvation’ is a hip swaggering, country inspired tune with a deeply dark underside. Think Grinderman, Edwyn Collins or the Clench sound tracking Tarantino’s latest film about a retired Scottish Football referee who decided to take revenge on all the players that have given him abuse over the years in the bloodiest fashion possible. In Cowboy boots. This is classy stuff with a sense of mischief and the luxurious, almost Elvis-like vocals really hit the spot. Delightfully, there’s an additional track in the shape of ‘Sorryville’ which is somewhere between Chris Isaacs, Twin Peaks and Catherine Wheel in its darkly atmospheric tones and reverb drenched guitars. Not a party band for a sunny afternoon in the park but if you’re look for bleak and moody then you know where to look. Fife.
Frost Magazine – A Thinkers Lifestyle Magazine. Thursday 8th January 2015
Milton Star Unveil The Dark, Beautiful Brooding Single Sorryville
Milton Star are Alan Wyllie and Graeme Currie who write and record their unique blend of indie and dark country in a converted church ‘Milton’ located in darkest Fife, the building not only inspired the band name but, as Alan explains, is pivotal in the writing process. “The thing that feeds the ideas and make the sound are the environment and acoustics here in the church and setting of the surrounding countryside. To have that on tap every day is just wonderful, we’ve been writing together for maybe 30 years and nothing before has come close. We tend to work independently on ideas initially, bouncing ideas back and forth and then come together to flesh things out, but there’s no set pattern, sometimes it’s the words, sometimes the music, sometimes a story or a visual, it’s a pretty fluid process once we get going though.”
Each of their tracks is drenched in atmosphere – think Velvet Underground meets vintage Glen Campbell via Rick Rubin collaborating on the next David Lynch movie or soundtracking the latest HBO crime drama…
Alan and Graeme’s collaborations date back through many incarnations of live bands to the early days of post punk and a band called Thursdays who were signed to Fast Records. After some years spent out of the music scene, they came back together in 2010, reinvigorated by a mutual dissatisfaction for what they describe as a “mostly insipid modern music scene”, picking up the gauntlet to produce sweet structured melodies carried by an expansive tremolo wall of sound and a dark soul.
With such rich musical experience the duo’s influences are wide and varied, as Graeme says. “Being the age we are we go back to punk and beyond, that rich seam of creativity with Marc Bolan, Roxy Music, Bowie and Velvet Underground. For me I was always drawn to Beefheart and a lot of left field guitarists. That whole American CBGBs thing with Television, Talking Heads, Patti Smith – Marquee Moon is still my favourite album. If you go back further though to some of the pioneers, Scotty Moore, what an innovator, Link Wray – that sheer power, you listen to Rumble, blows you away every time…”
Alan adds “It was such a focus for me, the music, the visuals, I remember being fourteen and my older brother coming in to my room, throwing the 69 Velvets live album at me and saying, “learn that, you’re joining the band…” Every week having new music to buy and bands to see, we were spoiled and that sticks with you. But equally I love a lot of old country – its easy to dismiss Hank Williams, the Everlys, Cash – Roy Orbison especially, what a voice and the musical tension he generates is unique on something like In Dreams, where it just changes all the way through, no verse chorus standard structure… The great songwriters too – Jimmy Webb “And I need you more than want you and I want you for all time.” Beautiful – but you take that beauty, you scratch the surface and you mix in a big chunk of darkness, pain and sorrow…”
With shades of Soulsavers and Mark Lanegan evident, Milton Star’s debut AA side single tracks ‘Salvation’ and ‘Sorryville’ are the perfect marriage between brooding vocals and shimmering guitars underpinned by a driving beat. Wonderfully atmospheric guitars capes paint vivid images of love, loss and regret lived out in one no-hope town to the next, in the bars, in shady motels and the highways and byways inbetween.
THE CUT PRICE JUKEBOX. December 11th 2014
Single of the Week: Salvation by Milton Star by thethreepennyguignol
It’s been a while since we’ve been able to dedicate some time to the Jukebox, what with the glamorous carousel of Christmas parties and all those award’s parties to go to. But fear ye not; we’ve found ourselves some fabulous indie-folk to tide you through the festive season.
Yup, our single of the week is Salvation from Milton Star, a band that record their music in an old church in Fife and apparently thought the Editors could do with sounding a bit more like a psychedelic folk band. The Curtis-esque vocals match perfectly with the dark,sultry guitar licks and lyrics that are both instantly recognisable and curiously oblique. The vocal lines are distorted and synthesised to create something with a really rich, hefty, meaty edge, the sort of vocals that you can hang entire albums on (which they need to do, soon). This is the sort of track you should be listening to while drinking cheap wine and gazing moodily into the fireplace.
BLUESBUNNY – Single song reviews. November 21st 2014
“Salvation” by Milton Star
With the confidence to once more walk the well-worn path from Scotland to the land of downbeat Americana, Fife’s Milton Star use “Salvation” as their off peak ticket to musical redemption. I’m sure the Fates will smile upon them but the rest is destiny
JAMMERZINE – First Listen: Milton Star – Salvation. November 20th, 2014
Milton Star are Alan Wyllie and Graeme Currie who write and record their unique blend of indie and dark country in a converted church in darkest Fife. Each of their tracks is drenched in atmosphere – think Velvet Underground meets vintage Glen Campbell via Rick Rubin collaborating on the next David Lynch movie or soundtracking the latest HBO crime drama…
Alan and Graeme’s collaborations date back through many incarnations of live bands to the early days of post punk and a band called Thursdays who were signed to Fast Records. After some years spent out of the music scene, they came back together in 2010, reinvigorated by a mutual dissatisfaction for what they describe as a “mostly insipid modern music scene”, picking up the gauntlet to produce sweet structured melodies carried by an expansive tremolo wall of sound and a dark soul.
With shades of Soulsavers and Mark Lanegan evident, Milton Star’s debut single ‘Salvation’ is the perfect marriage between brooding vocals and shimmering guitars underpinned by a driving beat.