Regular Columnists

Artist: Midiboy
Website: http://www.midiboy.com/
Genre: Electronic
CD Review:
This duo from Albany, Oregon has taken on the daunting task of revamping the old prodigal son story and making it relevant to today’s turned out bodies. In the words of Midiboy, ‘You know how it goes: Dude has it all, gives it up to live the fast life, gets burned, comes back.’ It’s the story of Logan who lives the life everyone wants and no one wants to pay for.

Midiboy, as you might guess from the name, is an electronic album, a debut mostly from the mind of Gregg Hart who did all of the music and the highly technical grafting together; with words from Joe Flint. Very good words. Though there are lyrics all the way thru, however, you get a feeling that this is really all instrumental somehow - Depeche Mode meets Pink Floyd with a spot of Edgar Froese rubbed into the really tough stains.

It is an ambitious journey, the first update on the story I’ve heard save for Bethel’s rock opera, Long Journey Home, but the two are utterly different. This is rock that has built itself on the edge of a synthetic world, something very sturdy sounding, yet all glitz and fabricated. Not the music, mind you, but the way the music delves into the story and reinforces the structure subconsciously. The hardness of the beat vs. the manmade sounds and heart and soul that each of us must journey thru. What we take away from it, the extent to which we are corrupted, that is up to our own personal strength.

The cd booklet is written in chapters, each song represented by a journal entry and the lyrics, except for the 3 short instrumentals, 2 of which sandwich the piece. ‘Regeneration’ is the hero returned end tune, clicking with techno rubble, stripping off the glitz and finding the true party soul within. Finding God is irrelevant. Finding the path to peace, that is the goal reached. ‘I have come to the realization that I need something more.’

For a debut work and the few amount of hands working on it, this is masterful stuff. Gregg should certainly be proud of himself for launching such a work in the fold first time out. Perhaps there are too many words for the electronica crowd, but this is a story first, a genre second. It works, both dramatically, and as a school for thought. Oh yeah, and you can dance your girl to it big time.