Miracle
The Living Likeness of My Electric Daemon
Relapse
While The Living Likeness of My Electric Daemon is only the third LP from synthpop duo Miracle, its component members have certainly been busy with solo endeavours, soundtracking work and instrumental and production contributions in the eight years since their last record. Like all their work together, the classy, lushly produced sound of the record is supported by a strong central lyrical and thematic framework, adding additional depth to the listening experience.
Broadly, the record revolves around the interaction of the spiritual and the physical world, invoking Christian theological doctrine and contemporary technology from Classicism to the cult of the smartphone. It’s heady and often esoteric stuff, but a fine match for the thoughtful, weighty approach to electronic music favoured by Steve Moore and Daniel O’Sullivan. Importantly, the music is never tied so closely to its big ideas that the songs become inaccessible; “Consolamentum Day” invokes the annihilation of the Cathars during the Crusades as a “recurring psychic event”, but you don’t need to unravel or even acknowledge its central metaphor to enjoy the warm synth chords, peppy melody or O’Sullivan’s evocative vocals, delivered in Latin or English. Similarly, opener “Ambrosia” is thick with gnostic reference (O’Sullivan sweetly singing “Caduceus ascеnds to axis mundi” is both bizarre and somehow compelling), with the music taking on an even more reverential tone, even in its funky disco guitar accents and analogue and digital synth textures.
And really, whether or not you can make heads or tails of what these songs are about without opening multiple Wikipedia tabs, they’re so lovely its hard not to be drawn into them. “The Eye” has a pleasantly understated melody that plays off its bubbling synth bass, the vocals smoothly gliding across its sequences as they slowly resolve into its baroque climax. “Fluid Window” brings in guest vocalist Rose Keeler-Schaffeler for a slowburning, twinkling ballad that splits the tonal difference between reverence and sensuality, a relaxed ecstasy in its exploration of the digital world. When Miracle pull out the stops on the maximal synthwave of “Time is the Fire” (“in which we burn”, natch) it’s positively elating, the relative simplicity of its clarion lead and kick snare drums bringing an inspirational vibe to its fatalistic view of history.
The Living Likeness of My Electric Daemon is a rare beast indeed, lavish and full of import in its design and production, and arcane and even impenetrable in its subject matter. And yet, those two facets reinforce one another rather than contrast, the richness of its sonics infusing the lyrics with meaning and weight. Miracle have built a grandiose modern synthpop record, as potent and as mystifying as it is mysterious, bless them. Recommended.
