Lilacs & Champagne - Midnight Features Volume 2: Made Flesh [VINYL]

The indulgent spoils of roses, kisses, lilacs and champagne. The luxurious ebb of music created by Emil Amos and Alex Hall, recalling the languor of early morning jazzy vibes on a Spanish beach.

Stylistically somewhere between the samplemania of The Avalanches or DJ Shadow, and the tasteful lounge of Dusted’s ‘Childhood’, Midnight Features Vol 2 is like one of the better Back to Mine CDs which proliferated in the 2000s. Much better in fact, because it's a programmed listen, engendering a kind of self-satisfied ‘I’m the cat with the cream’ narcotic mood, the sort which follows from an exhaustive night of hedonistic dancing.     

This imaginarium of sound is apparently inspired by fascination with b-grade crime, sci-fi, and porno movies - a kind of sleazy space-jazz, the kind which plays nicely at 2am in your bachelor or bachelorette pad. In some ways, it also plays as the stripped-down template from a class hip-hop production.

Midnight Features Vol 2 is the kind of narcissistic joy you get from enjoying schlock for its own sake. Far from being a guilty pleasure, it’s a quality late-night snack.