Micko & The Mellotronics – Shadow

Shadow, the fifth taster slice from Micko and the Mellotronics‘ forthcoming album The Trinity finds the songsmith in particularly edgy and claustrophobic form as he turns his microscope on the Jungian concept of the shadow (the unconscious parts of your personality that the ego rejects or ignores) through the unsettling lens of childhood impulses. Imagine the vivid and grubby revelations of Cider With Rosie recast in a North Leeds park or pebble-dashed suburban Yorkshire semis. This unease manifests itself lyrically in lines such as ‘I’ll tell Dad if you won’t pee on your hands/Licking it off – what don’t you understand?”, evoking deep and probably repressed memories of cruel childhood misdemeanours. This unease is underscored by a frantic, almost motorik driving soundtrack shot through with odd atonal guitar figures that just add to the overall sense that we’re in territory where something is not quite right.

But that’s Micko‘s forte. If you’re admiring the weave of the carpet, you can be sure that Micko has lifted the corner to expose the crumbling underlay. Lyrically forensic and musically taut, the Mellotronic method has been honed over three albums to become the tightest of tight vehicles for Micko‘s unique and idiosyncratic musical vision. Powered by Budge Magraw and Jan Noble (both ex-Cesarians) with guitar support from The Boomtown Rats‘ Paul Cuddeford, Shadow is dark, taut and urgent like a teenage fumble in a cinema. Micko doesn’t do love songs though. He does three-minute vignettes of the dank and troubling aspects of the human existence. Simultaneously introspective and outward-looking, he is a master of detail, marrying uncomfortable lyrical themes with killer off-kilter guitar pop; while your head admires the disturbing narrative, your toes are tapping.

Accompanied by an Ashley Jones-directed retro video which is part performance, part Dr Who-style sci-fi adventure, Shadow is out now on Landline Records. The Trinity is released on 12th June.