Almost three years since the debut long player by Miaoux Miaoux, Chemikal Underground is proud to announce the release of its exceptional follow-up, School of Velocity. The album picks up the baton from the high-gloss, hook-laden electronic pop of Light of the North and, as the title suggests, sprints through time and hyperspace at a pace that is little short of breathtaking.
On the album’s 10 songs, Glasgow-based multi-instrumentalist, producer and singer Julian Corrie is at the peak of his enviable powers, corralling influences ranging from eighties pop, nineties trance and the subtle, assured melodicism of Caribou to forge a sound with few parallels. This is forward-thinking pop in its purest form: a rush, a hit, a kiss.
The song titles hint at the textural delights that lie within – ‘Peaks Beyond Peaks’, ‘Luxury Discovery’, ‘Unbeatable Slow Machine’ - and from the first bars of the opening ‘Launch Loop’, the listener is left in no doubt that this is the work of a man enthralled and enslaved by pop and its possibilities.
The outcome? A beguiling series of silken soundscapes that simultaneously conjures a meta-nostalgic memory of classic pop workouts — think early Prince, Scritti Politti, Jam & Lewis — and a future where analogue synths and four-to-the-floor have earned their rightful, overdue places alongside the electric guitar as elemental building blocks of pop culture. Euphoria, ecstasy, rapture — call it what you want. Better still: submit.
Since the release of (SAY Award Longlisted) Light Of The North in 2012, Corrie has been playing live with the full-band line-up of Miaoux Miaoux, working on School of Velocity and remixing such artists as CHVRCHES (The Mother We Share), Belle & Sebastian (Your Cover’s Blown), Admiral Fallow (The Paper Trench) and The Phantom Band (Women Of Ghent).
The playing and production of School of Velocity is almost entirely Corrie’s handiwork with additional recording and mixing taking place at Chem19 in Blantyre with Jamie Savage. Guests on the record include the Cairn String Quartet and drummer Liam Chapman, who joins Corrie and bassist Liam Graham as Miaoux Miaoux’s bone-juddering, hip-shaking configuration on stage. There will be dancing.
Tracklisting: Launch Loop/ A Flutter Echo/ Star Sickness/ Luxury Discovery/ School Of Velocity/ Giga Shrug/ It’s The Quick/ Peaks Beyond Peaks/ Unbeatable Slow Machine/ Mostly Love Now