{"title":"Midding","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"nowhere-near-today","title":"Nowhere Near Today","description":"\u003cp\u003eWith the release of debut EP \u003ci\u003eNowhere Near Today\u003c\/i\u003e, Tough Love welcomes Cardiff-based five-piece Midding to the family. The idea for the band was originally conceived by singer-guitarist Joe Woodward whilst writing and recording songs in his kitchen on a 4-track recorder, and over time eventually found help from like-minded friends, Elliot Roberts and Cam Wheeler. The three of them would spend their nights experimenting with cassette recording with the admirable if not challenging aim to recreate the symphonic sounds of Phil Spector on a DIY budget. With growing confidence and having amassed a small catalogue of songs, a few aborted attempts were made to get a live band together before they found help from a second guitarist, Eli Allison, who had recently relocated from Cornwall. As necessity would dictate, the first shows as a quartet made use of a drum machine, but the ideal formation for the band wasn’t truly complete until meeting Nia Abraham, whose live drumming would add a more physical quality to the band’s sound.\\\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt the beginning of 2024, they began working more purposefully towards an end goal with the writing and recording of the five-song Nowhere Near Today EP.  Though retaining some of their home recording practices, they also made use of a studio facility based in a disused shopping centre basement that was made available through SHIFT, a local artist collective connected to the band. The acquisition of an 8-track Tascam 488MKII, along with the natural reverb of SHIFT’s empty concrete space allowed for further opportunity to experiment with both cassette recording techniques and their still developing live sound, the two environments permitting an all-too-rare creative freedom. The process was transformative for the group, their Spector-inspired ambitions now taking on a more defined shape that skirted around the edges of psych, noise-rock and industrial-pop in a way that increasingly became their own.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor a debut EP, the results are impressively realised, a confluence of expansive tremolo guitars, a deliberately primordial rhythm section and a contrasting vulnerable vocal performance that’s both melodic and bracing. It’s a record born both of private experimentation and public performance, who they are on stage and what they express on record informing the other but still distinctly each their own thing, shifting then dovetailing like the waves of feedback that wash through Nowhere Near Today. Still a young band, it’s tomorrow they feel a lot closer to.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor fans of Psychic TV, Jesus and Mary Chain, Beat Happening, Brian Jonestown Massacre.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tough Love","offers":[{"title":"Black 12\"","offer_id":50874094027083,"sku":"2233771","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/4f4a3027-aabf-d439-de0b-ca1c58262c7e_247d5c88_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1732218778"},{"product_id":"44","title":"0.44","description":"\u003cp\u003eAlmost a year to the day from the release of their debut EP, Cardiff-based quintet Midding return with a new five song collection entitled\u003cem\u003e .44\u003c\/em\u003e, an oblique reference to Son of Sam serial killer David Berkowitz and his connection to The Process Church of the Final Judgment cult. The Process Church carries a damaged reputation (in part by association), but in its infancy its spiritual radicalism, aesthetic manipulations and commitment to a burgeoning counterculture make good source material for future inspirations. Like Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV and Skinny Puppy before them, Midding understand there's equal fascination to be found in their dark as the light.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMade between Rat Trap Studios and Fairoak, their own home-built recording set-up, these new songs represent the first time they've set live drums to record. The results are marked, shifting from the linear pulse of that first EP to something more dynamic and agile. A bedroom project has now become a fully functioning group. As with the previous EP, all five songs were recorded to tape, which gives .\u003cem\u003e44 \u003c\/em\u003eits in-room feel, imbuing a sense of claustrophobia that neatly matches the subject matter of the lyrics, referencing cultdom, serial killer fanaticism, depression and, ultimately, ecstatic release. Tracks like 'All For You' and 'Nuisance' flex with a melodic confidence that's both accessible and off-kilter, though the greatest transgression can be heard on 'For A Little While', a churning spacerock blast overlaid with indecipherable, automatic writing-derived lyrics that suggest some kind of Lovecraftian portal may have been opened up in Wales this past year. Into that portal we might follow...\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor fans of \u003cspan style=\"caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration: none; display: inline !important; float: none;\"\u003ePsychic TV, Jesus and Mary Chain, Beat Happening, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Spacemen 3.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tough Love","offers":[{"title":"12\" - Black","offer_id":55875401908555,"sku":"R0505-8465","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Midding-.44.jpg?v=1762783452"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/de\/collections\/midding.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}