Adam Miller – Gateway – Album Review
by Killian Laher

Adam Miller, the guitarist with the now defunct electronic band Chromatics, has just released his first solo album.  Those who lament the absence of new recordings from The Durutti Column will enjoy this, it’s a series of 18 guitar instrumentals, each having a similar late-night feel to Vini Reilly’s work.  Lost Guitar sets the tone, with clean electric guitar lines weaving in and out.  Miller’s guitar lines are clear as a bell on tracks like Hidden Entrance and The Names of the Lost.  Malcolm Middleton’s guitar playing with Arab Strap is not referred to as often as Moffat’s lyricism, but you can discern Middleton’s influence on The Lucky Star and Libra.  Glimmerlight is dominated by shimmering keyboards, and these reappear on Night Bloom, which evokes John Martyn’s classic Small Hours.  The keyboard is used in a more tranquil way on Blue Energy and Erosion, almost straying into Brian Eno territory.

The album is very much a mood piece, exemplified by the title track.  Keyboards and guitar combine to make it one of the most realised tracks here.  The sound of early ’80s The Cure hangs over The Painted Boy, Hologram, and the elegiac sounding Alien Summer.  It’s difficult to isolate individual tracks, some of them are extremely brief (90 seconds or less in some cases), but it’s an excellent album to put on and let wash over you.  It can be found here.

Erosion