Bill Ryder-Jones Intimacy Meets Suicide-Esque Synth Haze on Louie Miles’ With the Sun –

Louie Miles brought one of the most consoling alt-indie signatures we have heard spring up from the underground to our radar this year with his latest single, With the Sun. The Walsall-born, Liverpool-based songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer has been recording himself since he was 11; now, as a fully-fledged and mature artist, his teeth have been cut to a practically Great White bite.

With the Sun resolves in the same kind of artful indie intimacy that makes Bill Ryder-Jones’ solo work feel so devastatingly close, carried by hushed vocals and instrumentals that sound like the sonic equivalent of sun-bleached old photographs. Miles pulls thematic emotion from quasi-lo-fi, saturation-heavy distortion, giving his unique art form a distinct pull far beyond the fray of indie experimentalists borrowing components of another artist’s panache.

The influence of Elliott Smith, Leonard Cohen, Radiohead and Daniel Johnston sits naturally inside the release, more spiritual ancestry than cosplay. Miles pursues sentimentality, honesty and childlike creativity, then stains it with enough fuzz and orchestral shadow to keep the sweetness from evaporating.

Everything within With the Sun feels painstakingly alchemised to the nth degree. It is the kind of music you’d hope to have someone to lean into if you heard it live, especially as Suicide-esque, diaphanously fuzzy synths bleed into the outro.

With the Sun is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast