Midnight Rodeo - Chaos Era [LP]

Nottingham-based Midnight Rodeo are a collective of five close friends who met on the city's live circuit. Signing with FatCat Records in 2022, they've released four singles to date and toured relentlessly (sold-out hometown shows, The Great Escape, Dot To Dot, and Kendall Calling) created a tight-knit family. Their pleasure in playing as an ensemble is instantly evident on their debut album, Chaos Era. The songs are collaborative efforts, that due to their different musical backgrounds, result in genre criss-crossing and totally unique creative collisions. Written over an extended period of time, the songs on the album can be viewed as a kind of coming-of-age suite, as the unit of 20-somethings wrestle with subjects such as relationships, shifting social dynamics, changing hopes and dreams. The LP's title refers to tumultuous personal events they've helped each other through. The band recorded the album with Samana's Franklin Mockett, making full use of the acclaimed duo's residential studio, located deep in the Welsh countryside. The aim was to remove all distractions, and, with Mockett's assistance, capture the group as live, and as analogue, as possible. For 10 days, in sometimes 16 hour sessions, music, incense, and whiskey flowed, while vintage amp valves glowed. Just like the band's live performances, Chaos Era is packed with a palpable joy and the exhilaration of creation in each others company.