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Minuit - Last Night You Saw This Band Album Review

02 Dec 2012 // A review by Miss_Jukebox
Last night I heard the fourth studio album from electronic darlings Minuit. And I will be listening to it again tonight, and the following night, and the consecutive Summer nights coming in to 2013. Last Night You Saw This Band is the tour-de-force album from Minuit. It demonstrates the evolution of these artists, how they have melded into this electric monster that continues to colonise the unchartered territories of dance music. With beats blasting this rhythm-driven album takes a tour outside the club doors onto the tropical backdrop of an exotic getaway, a party on the edge of the sunset and the sea.

The fiesta begins right from the title track. Last Night I Saw This Band contains dazzling brass accents that enunciate the pulsating offbeat underpinning the song. The rhythms come stampeding in Book of the Dead with clap palpitations and an infectious chorus bound to have you lovestruck. Much of this album was unearthed in a period of time spent in Rarotonga, and its ambient influence has its inflections throughout Last Night I Saw This Band. Islands encapsulates the tribal beats and local echoes. When vocalist Ruth Carr fades into singing about diamonds, it is like the warm, sun-kissed ocean rolling up the shore, soaking into the local footprints ingrained in the smouldering sand.

A pulverising guitar hook rocks it up again after the smoother tracks, Good Ol’ Days and What We Know. The epic synth halo of Ghost drifts across and lights up a 90’s nightclub. Grounded with electro beats and Carr’s seductive vocals, there is something intriguingly classic in this song. 

Few artists have the courage to hurl in the trashing beat of Stories For Boys, which is juxtaposed against a gentle island tap. This song is exquisite chaos. You just have to let this water whirlwind sweep you away into the divinity of the sermon, Heaven. Once again, Minuit launch in something so unsettling in the beat and the lyrics of Warheads. It is pure, rhythmic commotion. Sisters On The Balcony drives in the military beats which mark the theme of war in this song. The destruction of conflict is frank in the instrumentation and lyrics of this account of annihilation. 

The album closes with a charming farewell in Sit Down Beside Me. Minuit bid us a delightful adieu to this astounding follow-up to their already incredible body of work. 

Aptly being released on a date foreseen as the day the world ends, I cannot think of a more exciting album, or more scintillating soundtrack to perish to. While that may seem a little morbid this album is a celebration of the vigour and colour of life, in all it glorious and ugly shades. Last Night I Saw This Band takes Minuit to a whole new dimension of dance music. Contagious and chic, this album is bold and daring, and so lustrously assembled. If it so happens that they Mayans are correct, well this is what I will have on my stereo during the apocalypse. And if they are wrong, and we see a December 22, well then we can only get excited because it means it won't be the last night you saw this band. Minuit will be touring with this album in the coming year. And my goodness, what a live blast this set will be. A win-win situation really?

- Janise
Last Night You Saw This Band
View Track Listing
 

About Minuit

Minuit has a heart. And it beats loud. Real loud.

Having toured their synths and samplers from Hanoi to Helsinki on the live circuit for over a decade, this trio have crafted their own energetic sound – and it's refreshingly different.

Out front, the enigmatic Ruth Carr mixes sinister with salvation in a jubilant cascade of lyrics, while bandmates Ryan Beehre and Paul Dodge forge their rib-rattling, hip-shaking beats around her.

Visit the muzic.net.nz Profile for Minuit

Releases

Last Night You Saw This Band
Year: 2012
Type: Album
Aotearoa - The Remixes
Year: 2012
Type: Album
The Guards Themselves
Year: 2006
Type: Album
Buy Online @ Mightyape
The Guns EP
Year: 2004
Type: EP
The 88
Year: 2003
Type: Album
Except You
Year: 2002
Type: EP
Luck
Year: 2000
Type: EP
Silver
Year: 1999
Type: EP
Sonic Experience
Year: 1998
Type: EP

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