ARCHIVE, the first collaboration between singer and multi-instrumentalist Mishkin Fitzgerald and Brighton-based producer Third Bloom, is a transmission from some dystopian future Britain, where the sun has already long since set, leaving nothing but memories and regrets. This tragically short, bittersweet album feels like some alternate dimension version of the Palace of Green Porcelain from H. G. Wells’ time-hopping classic, The Time Machine, if it focused on the history of underground British dance music instead of natural history. Employing a tapestry of neoclassical strings, plaintive pianos, brooding bass, and crisp beats, Fitzgerald and Third Bloom create an immersive sonic world that is all past, no future – the spirit of ’77 having devoured the entire human experiment.
Although definitely sombre and reflective, ARCHIVE avoids feeling cynical or defeatist with its strong premise, clever production and, most importantly, real heart and talent. With its baroque, gothic piano – featured extensively on nearly all of ARCHIVE‘s 10 tracks – it would have been far too easy for Fitzgerald and Third Bloom’s collaboration to fall into The Haunted Mansion territory (not that there’s anything wrong with that, per se), delivering camp and kitsch instead of timely, timeless commentary of the human experience. Fitzgerald and Third Bloom deftly dodge this pitfall with uncanny musical instincts, getting the mix and arrangements just so, allowing you to fall completely under their transportive spell. From the first moments of album opener ‘Claw Pt. 1’, with its post-dubstep bass growling and glowering like an interdimensional portal while a heavenly choir weeps in the distance, you seem to draw further and deeper into the still, shadowy expanse of ARCHIVE‘s ancestral memory. Each song seems like an exhibit in this vast technological expanse, visions of lost worlds and faded dreams playing out like 16mm home movies while hidden machinery plays out its obscurantist destiny somewhere far out of view.
For all of its high concept and technical proficiency, ARCHIVE is an entirely human work of art. Although Third Bloom’s synths, beats, and production are an important part of the album’s effect, Hana Piranha’s strings, Garry Mitchell’s guitars and bass, Third Bloom’s acoustic piano, and Fitzgerald’s chilling, ethereal vocals are what make ARCHIVE. Such a stunning achievement. The strings and piano are especially effective, giving tracks like ‘History’ a similar neoclassical beauty as artists like Max Richter or labels like Erased Tapes, but less stylized, more timeless. It’s as easy to imagine the delicate melodies floating out of the drawing rooms of Erik Satie or Claude Debussy as from a post-millennial chill-out room, mingling with the smell of sweat and hash.
With its connections to trip-hop, post-rock, and post-dubstep, it would have been far too easy for ARCHIVE to crumble under the weight of its own ambition, as each of these genres has, at times, become rather top-heavy and unwieldy over the past several decades. Impressively, Fitzgerald, Third Bloom, and collaborators dodge every single possible hurdle to deliver a work of incandescent beauty and imagination, working in complete harmony on heart, body, and mind. It’s a staggering achievement disguised as an ethereal neoclassical electronic record. Do not be deceived, this is essential listening for fans of arthouse electronica, modern classical music, speculative fiction, or anyone concerned about where we’re headed as a species.
Follow Mishkin Fitzgerald on mishkinfitzgerald.co.uk | facebook | instagram | tiktok | youtube | patreon
Follow Third Bloom on thirdbloom.co.uk | instagram | soundcloud