Follow the Ghost: Vinyl LP
ESP2LPLabel: Evil Speaker Records
Release Date: 13th March
There really is something about this record that keeps pulling me back, they nod to Missions of Burma, Replacement, Neil Young and Big Star, which is absolute nectar to me. Really, we're talking more vibe of that rather than soundalike and that's always the hardest thing to nail, that visceral pull of debut album or early records made with a fizz and a buzz, anger and passion, it's hard to fake, hard to analyse but I really think I'm gonna be going back to this record a lot.
“It’s hard to find your way, following the ghost,” sings Noah Alves on the title track from Middleman’s debut album, as the band explores ideas of how being chained to the past can hinder your forward momentum into the future. This creates a thrilling duality to the debut LP from the London DIY four-piece made up of Alves, Harper Maury, Rory White and Ted Foster. They are all young, in their early-to-mid-twenties, and very much focused in the now, harnessing an energy, urgency and rawness that feels fresh, alive and viscerally present. However, it’s also clear there’s a deep love of music that was made before they were born: the taut, wiry assault of Mission of Burma; the raspy yet melodic charge of The Replacements; the pioneering punk of Wipers, fleshed out via the more restrained and tender moments of Big Star or Neil Young. The result is a beautiful dichotomy of a record that both pays tribute to a rich musical lineage that the band are a part of, while also resisting the urge to get sucked into a dead end of nostalgia, mythology and recycling past glories.