Rainy Miller — Joseph, What Have You Done (Fixed Abode)
An atmosphere of nowhere towns in dank post-industrial landscapes scarred by decay, cut through by motorways to elsewhere informs Lancashire born Rainy Miller’s new album. On Joseph, What Have You Done? he identifies an inheritance of class and generational conflict as a crucible of personal trauma in a genre-fluid style which he labels “Northern Gothic.” A portrait of place, position and self, Miller uses abstract ambience, acoustic balladry, bursts of noise and spoken word interludes to confront what holds one down and who holds one back.
He starts with systems. “Mud in my Mouth (Predetermined Definitions)” uses interment as a metaphor a class system maintained through the internalization of imposed position “Dragged from the cot in which we laid/To the hill/To watch them dig our graves/One foot on the neck/And one foot on the spade” Through the switches in style and mood, Miller maintains and elaborates his themes as he digs deeper into the personal costs of that legacy and draws back to make connections with family, community and nation. The direct confessional approach and stylistic leaps may be jarring for some but Miller’s recurring imagery — of dank atmospheres, wounded souls, miscommunication and mental health problems — tie the album together. Jazz drummer Jonathan Ludvigsen, Hi-Vis singer Graham Sayle and composer August Rosenbaum make key contributions. The first with a purging solo on “An Obsidian Lake Spews out of Me,” the latter two to the dark grind of “Vengeance.” On the title track over undulating electronics and strings, Manchester artist Christopher Bryan offers a sermon on young and old dreams: “Lancashire, Land of Piss and Vinegar Towns/Our mothers named us and they named us murder/There, they say to the young/I’ve had it up to here/The palm pressed flat against the neck or the head/Don’t ask us to look to the sky for solace/The answers fall in rain again/Soft wet bullets met screw faced forcing us downwards almost in prayer to the solid ground”
In the video for their 1991 single “It’s Grim Up North,” The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (AKA KLF) perform in pouring rain, illuminated by the headlights of passing vehicles. Over a thumping industrial beat Bill Drummond recites a list of Northern towns, interspersed with the title refrain. As the beat drops, the strains of “Jerusalem” swell and Mark E Smith’s words “The North Will Rise Again” roll. Musically it never left but Rainy Miller goes beyond dots on the map to bring us a nuanced expression of the pain and resilience of the communities those dots represent.
Rainy Miller x Space Afrika — A Grissaille Wedding (Fixed Abode)
Photo by Timon Benson
As performers, writers and producers Rainy Miller and Space Afrika (Joshua Inyang and Joshua Reid) are key figures in an eclectic Manchester centered electronic, avant-pop scene that includes artists Blackhaine, Iceboy Violet and Richie Culver. Grissaille is a style of painting done exclusively in shades of grey. It can serve as a base upon which color is overpainted and/or as method of imitating (sculptural) relief. Both aspects are present on this collaboration, A Grissaille Wedding where the songs whisper from doorways, alleys, industrial wastelands. Foggy, weakly lit by the reflection of rain splattered streetlamps on oil slicked asphalt. A new version of Northern soul built from grime, dubstep, machines both shiny and decrepit. With Miller’s vocal often autotuned these songs flicker between despair and hope, soliloquys of love, loss and trauma blooming into a cruel world framed by Space Afrika’s impressionist soundscapes, which highlight the vulnerability and quiet defiance of the narrators.
“Summon the Spirit/Demon” opens as an invocation. Miller’s whispers and coos shrouded in a murky Burial like atmosphere as Voice Actor intones invitingly. Miller’s multitracked singing follows, pitched high to emphasize his fragility. “Maybe It’s Time to Lay Down the Arms” features Mica Levi and Miller over a stumbling trip hop beat and lysergic swirls of synth and backing vocals. A lonely plea for inner peace. On “Sweet (I’m Free)” RenzNiro and Iceboy Violet reflect on finding self-acceptance and love amongst damaged lives in ruined towns as Space Afrika’s soundscape slips and churns beneath them. Celestial backing vocals, billowing synth pads, violins and a simple cyclical acoustic guitar riff give the “The Graves at Charleroi” a hymnal intensity as Coby Sey sings of the passage through grief. Richie Culver delivers the spoken word piece “I Believe in God, When Things are Going My Way” against a background of quavering strings and beatless ambience. He plays with the ambiguity of his interlocutor, is it God? A lover? Himself?
“I need rules, false promises/The laws keep me safe/Safe by your side/4th of December, a victim of my own thoughts” feels like a summary of the project’s main theme. Paradox, complexity, hope and despair are ever present. The greyness throws trauma into stark silhouette but splashes of color, hard won knowledge and the will to express the fragility of self can lead to some form of acceptance and allow one to move forward. A Grissaille Wedding forges all this into a hauntingly beautiful set of songs which aren’t afraid to bare teeth as well as wounds.
