Miami Horror – Illumination Review:

It’s been a good bit since I heard a substantial dance record. Not just a good single but ‘full length, A to B, quality dance floor album’. Recent efforts of big name producers have shaken my faith in the progress of innovative floor fillers but Miami Horror‘s Illumination refuses mediocrity. With the basic intentions of making you move, simple but important values like vocals, melody, bass etc are key players in making the band’s debut release a memorable one.

Miami Horror – Holidays ft Alan Palomo

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Interview:

1. First off, congrats on a truly valuable debut record. I hope you’re feeling the love from fans and press worldwide

Thank you. Yes its been great, all good news so far. We are really comfortable with the record ourselves.

2. There seems to be an expectation that the bigger you get, the harder your set has to be. Do you think kids are starting to realize (with the growing popularity of Classixx, yourselves and others) that big bass isn’t everything?

Well in australia and Europe that problem isn’t as obvious as america. I haven’t really been anywhere that has played hard for a long time and I couldn’t stand it if I did. You’d hope people are starting to realize as its been quite a few years since it peaked.. huh.

3. I’m loving the vocals used in this album. How’d you go about picking out voices for ‘Illumination’?

Well I wanted to collaborate with Alan as we’d been planning to for a while.. with the others we were looking for specific voices and we were lucky enough to find them! It took some work but was great.

4. Although I wouldn’t consider you guys ‘chill wave’ your collaborations with Alan Palomo make you partners in crime. Why are people getting so worked up over this joke genre?

Honestly, what is chill wave? Chilled out music? does that make AIR chillwave? Oh wait, their first release is over 10yrs old. Its ridiculous to put something into a category just because you can’t think of any other way to really describe it.. To me it doesn’t make any sense. I’ve seen things referring to chill wave as being dead. Truth is, Chillwave never existed.. Good music doesn’t die, regardless of what ridiculous genre name was made up for it or it was pushed into.
outside of blogs this isn’t the case.

5. What records, movies, books or other inspirations help you guys write music?

There are no specific records or movies that I constantly reference anymore. However we are digging the debut Tame Impala Album. I haven’t had much time to read over the last few years. Late 70′s and early 80s movies with weird soundtracks are always interesting. Soft visuals, etc…

6. Just about every track on the album has remix ready stems. Which songs/producer’s do you guys have lined up for remixes?

No one specifically yet, we are looking for different people for each track. Its been hard to get who we really want.

7. Binary brought you guys out to the Echoplex in LA for your first US show. Is there a connection between that experience and the song of the same name?

Not exactly. America is a very strange place for australians, especially LA.. I had always wanted to name a song after my almost movie like experiences in LA and it just happened to be this one because I felt the name matched. The word Echoplex and even Echo Park seem like they have a greater meaning.

8. How do you perform an album that has primarily guest vocals?

It is probably our biggest hurdle. Currently Josh sings all the songs live, but in the future we are thinking of maybe running a lead vocal track for all the female songs, while projecting their face/visuals onto a screen behind us.

9. ‘Infinite Canyons’, desert themed music videos and wild west imagery…Have you guys always wanted to be cowboys or is this just a phase the band is going through?

A phase and suggestion of a where we may go next.

10. If I ever get around to flying out to Australia it’d be great to know some good places to eat…

Cookie in Melbourne is pretty awesome. Its thai influenced but still so much better than normal ‘thai’. I generally eat a lot of Asian food from many different places.

[Buy/Stream] Miami Horror – Illumination http://miamihorror.com/

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