Living in the U.S. its hard for me to keep track of what cool rock bands are doing overseas. For example there were a couple bands in the mid 2000’s that came from the U.K. area that had such huge potential to be two of the coolest progressive melodic rock bands of all time and of course I didn’t discover either of the bands until after they were broken up. The two bands that I am referring to are Oceansize and Yourcodenameis:milo. Of the two, Oceansize had a bit more success and a longer lifespan, they were also crazy legit. If you haven’t had a chance to hear any of Oceansize’s tunes I highly suggest you go do so know.
However, as heavy and progressive as Oceansize was, Yourcodenameis:milo were even better (especially their band name, seriously so random and weird). First a little history before I explain how awesome Yourcodenameis:milo really was. The band formed in Washington, Tyne and Wear (wherever that is) in 2002. The band’s first official release was a mini-album produced by Steve Albini called All Roads to Fault, which was seven songs of sci-fi post-hardcore genius. While All Roads To Fault was entertaining, Yourcodenameis:milo were still a bit raw and their sound still had room to grow.
Well they didn’t just grow with their next release they totally blossomed. In 2005 the band released their first full length LP Ignoto and beileve me when I tell you friends it is an all time classic full of some of the best experimental post-hardcore space-rock songs of all time. Imagine a big mechanical alien robot sending out apocalyptic prophecies into deep space using the sounds and of noises of Hum, Quicksand, Ministry, Atari Teenage Riot, and Radiohead and you might have a slight idea of the downright epic nature of Ignoto. Even the artwork that was created by the same dude who did some of Pink Floyd’s and The Mars Volta’s album art was epic.
Youcodenameis:milo chose to record with Flood (Mark Ellis) on Ignoto, which is something that greatly benefited the overall feel of the album. While Flood maybe more known for producing main stream rock artists such as U2, he has also worked with some other heavier more experimental artists (Nine Inch Nails, The Smashing Pumpkins) and that’s when Flood really shined as a producer. He has this knack of making a song sound so distorted and broken up like its coming through an AM radio transmission, while still maintaining a high quality sound and dynamic. This crazy destroyed AM radio sound is something Flood utilized with perfection on Yourcodenameis:milo’ Ignoto. My favorite, track four “Rapt Dept” is a perfect example. While the first three songs on the album do a great job of building tension its “Rapt Dept” that brings it all to a head. The menacing rhythm on this song along with all of the fuzz makes it sound like the soundtrack for the beginning battle of the war that is going to end the world.
yourcodenameis:milo – Rapt. Dept.
Yourcodenameis:milo waver back and forth from this fuzzed out menace to songs that are pure brilliant bliss like track seven “FiveFour”, which starts dark and claustrophobic only to open into a clear soaring bridge filled with mathed out riffs. This section of the song comes as breath of fresh air from all the minor keyed despair. This is the first time on Ignoto that the band opens up and really lets their musicianship shine, while guitarist and vocalist Paul Mullen belts out lyrics about love and hope. The way the song is constructed and the timing of the bright bridge really succeeds in striking an emotional chord for me. My heart seriously skips a beat every time I hear the song. It’s that good. Up to this point Ignoto almost makes you feel like you’ve been on this dangerous journey through space and trying to avoid death while navigating through a bunch of asteroid fields and when “FiveFour” arrives its like coming to the end of that asteroid filed only to witness the most beautiful cluster of stars you’ve ever seen.
yourcodenameis:milo – Fivefour
Immediately following “FiveFour” comes the most extreme sounding song on the album “Yesterday’s Head”. This song literally sounds like it is coming through a stereo that has been beaten repeatedly with a massive sledge hammer yet is some how still able to function on a basic enough level to process sound, but it is transmitting it through some demonic frequency that is reserved for public address announcements broadcast into bomb shelters located in hell. The wall of noise in “Yesterday’s Head” almost covers up the bands playing to a point that the song comes across more as a drone than an actual piece of music. It’s like Flood and Youcodenameis:milo wanted to give you a quick reminder that the perilous journey through space is not even close to being over and that brief moment of hope that you may have felt on the previous track was fleeting and undeserved.
yourcodenameis:milo – Yesterday’s Head
Ignoto continues on the wavering path of menace and bliss for the next three songs until we arrive to the album closer “Audition”, a slow building and perfectly executed song that revolves around a loop of Mullen’s voice repeating ‘The angels would look down on you, but your too fucking tall’ that comes in and out of the song with the music swelling more and more until it reaches a screeching climax and abruptly dies like the universe just imploded into the 4th dimension. It’s Mullen’s repeated lyric in “Audition” that I think defines the meaning of the song and the overall concept of the album. Within this short lyric is a statement that can be molded as a lens to look at all the previous songs on Ignoto and what they actually mean. After several repeated listens to Ignoto I have decided that it’s Yourcodenameis:milo’s way of calling out someone / something, whether that something is a corporation or a country or just the overall first world society for their actions and warning them that their piousness and overarching power have gotten the better of them. The band seems to almost be mocking the subject by telling them that your out of luck and there is no saving this someone or something now. The band is assuring this subject that there’s no hope and that it’s done, which is a fitting way to close out an album that spent the majority of its time pummeling through extended sections of distorted technological breakdowns, while teasing the listener with brief sections of clarity and light. It’s like the journey that Ignoto took us on was all for not and a waste of time. Like they wanted to show us / the subject that the damage had already been done and to make us feel responsible for the aftermath, while being helpless to do anything to fix it. It’s a total brain scramble that few albums and bands are able to achieve, but Yourcodenameis:milo seem to pull it off with well planned calculations through out the entire 54 minutes of the album. Its pure genius really.
yourcodenameis:milo – Audition
After the release of Ignoto Yourcodenameis:milo would go on to release a collaborative album in 2006’s Print Is Dead and one more full length album 2007’s They Came From the Sun, both of which were much glossier and for me didn’t quite catch the innovation and immediacy that Ignoto had. It’s like Yourcodenameis:milo used up all their energy on Ignoto and ran out of steam, leading the band to pursue collaborations with outside musicians to somehow regain that spark. Then somewhat getting reignited to record one more full-length only to discover that they were truly out of gas and leading the band to break up.
Technically Yourcodenameis:milo aren’t actually broken up, but on hiatus with all members of the band leaving open the possibility of reuniting. Maybe they are just biding their time and carefully reconstructing themselves individually to reunite to into a new and improved super robot, but when your greatest album in Ignoto ends with the idea that all hope is lost it’s kind of hard to come back and change peoples’ minds. Maybe Yourcodenameis:milo accidentally sealed their fate by creating such a superb reality altering album in Ignoto so early on in their career, but at least they were able compose such a timeless and innovative piece of art before they disbanded. Something the majority of bands are never able to even come close to accomplishing.
R.I.P. Yourcodenameis:milo.