Mother Is The Milky Way

2009年に750枚限定で発売されたツアー限定CDがリイシュー!
本作は元々、Focus Groupとのコラボレーション・アルバム『Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age』のプロモーションのために行ったバンドの最後のツアーで販売された。
今回のリリースはベルリンのマスタリング・スタジオ、Calyxによるオリジナルテープからのリマスタリングが施され、初ヴァイナル化となる。
ジャケット・デザインは人気グラフィック・デザイナー、ジュリアン・ハウスが手がけた。

Originally sold during the tour for 2009s spellbinding Broadcast and the Focus Group Investigate the Witch Cults of the Radio Age, Mother Is the Milky Way delivers more of that albums transporting, mystical experiments in song and sound collages. Where Trish Keenan and James Cargills collaboration with the Focus Groups Julian House did indeed sound like supernatural transmissions, these pieces are slightly more grounded and concrete: theres a drowsy depth to the buzzing drones and beats that anchors the warbling flutes, birdsong, and Keenans murmured musings about "a dream within the dream" on "In Here the World Begins." Its the equal of anything that appeared on Witch Cults, as is "Mothers Milk Means Music," a darkly sparkling excursion that brings the mini-albums orbit full circle. Mother Is the Milky Ways elements collide so spontaneously that its pieces can feel almost offhanded, but they have far too much detail to be dismissed as unfinished. Childrens laughter and sprightly electronics meander through "Elegant Elephant," leaving plenty of room for the songs folky underpinnings and Keenans wordplay, which celebrates an ornament on the mantle in much the same way she imbued a broken clock with a winning personality on Haha Sounds "The Little Bell." Meanwhile, the sound effects and samples on "Never Trust a Rusty Bolt" reach a cartoonish level of absurdity. Above all, Mother Is the Milky Ways mind-expanding layers exemplify Broadcasts soft way of challenging conventional, hippy-dippy notions of what psychedelic music can be. On "Im Just a Person in This Roomy Verse," the duo superimpose one of Keenans dusty lullabies about perception with whispers, wild vocalizations, and the laughter of a studio audience, implying simultaneous states of consciousness. Cargill and Keenan make these different states of being more literal on "Milling Around the Village," a tour around a seemingly bucolic, Wicker Man-like enclave that slowly grows more sinister, and on "The Aphid Sleeps," where Keenan details a green world not much bigger than a dewdrop. At once rougher and more intricate than some of their earlier releases, Mother Is the Milky Way finds Broadcast "growing backwards," as one of its song titles puts it. That the magical-sounding direction they pursued here and on Investigate the Witch Cults of the Radio Age was cut short by Keenans untimely 2011 death remains a painful loss, but Warps reissue of Mother Is the Milky Way is a celebration of the singular beauty that Broadcast shared with the world. ~ Heather Phares