Bright Midnight - La Minuit

Hear The Track Here

First in the review queue at Soundclick all bright eyed and bushy-tailed is someone we have encountered more than a few times over the past year and, all in all, its been a most pleasureable experience and that counts for something. I freely admit I was a bit skeptical when I first encountered Floating Feather (Sleepy Mood) (July 2009) and had trouble allying that track with its post punk credentials. Mind you, since then I have reviewed a great many tracks, in fact one a month since I met him. Not that I mind, of course, some musicians are just naturally prolific and - sometimes - are well worth keeping your eye on and Bright Midnight has come close enough so many times. Reading back of the reviews it's a fairly even spread of recommendeds and higher so obviously this Texan musician has something on the ball and the name of that something is a fine rock sensibility. He may dress it up in different genre guises but my guess is that Bright Midnight is just a rock animal at heart.

I'd be willing to place a safe bet that Hillis Emanuelson (aka Bright Midnight) is mightily sick of being compared vocally to Jim Morrison but sorry, it's true. It can be disguised when you venture outside that straight rock thing that first pointed it out to me, but when the instrumentation and style is unashamedly classic rock in feel and style, it even begins to sound like the Doors - and that, my friends, is spoooooky. Almost everyone I know who has heard this track, and others with the same style, how eerie it is that this captures the sound, and the almost shambolic arrangements of musicians who are stoned out of their tiny little minds. In other words, my favourite kind of rock.

Its a given then that I will like this but would you? I suspect that if you've been following this musician, this will be a welcome addition to the growing catalog and certainly up to the standard of past releases but new listeners may find this track harder to grasp, simply because it is so good at evoking the period. In this electronic world of ours, however, there is always going to be enough room for someone to grow their rock roots, which IMO Bright Midnight is doing extremely well. I really liked the way this track developed, and that's always a critical factor for me. I've heard all the rock licks there are and then some, but Bright Midnight still manages to keep that rock flame alive and more power to him for that.

Sprawling but effective. Highly Recommended classic rock.