Jazz has been a prominent musical expression and art form for over a century, mutating into many creative guises, brilliantly tapping into the zeitgeist of transformative moments in history while characterising what the definition of cool means to every generation.
Australian musicians have crafted their own path in the jazz musical idiom fusing its global heritage while infusing it with some local characteristics for good measure. Melbourne quintet Mildlife are an exceptionally talented outfit in the contemporary Australian music scene, unafraid to have eclectic influences ranging from music concrete and progressive rock influences like Pink Floyd to Giorgio Moroder's disco rhythms and a sprinkle of vocoder vocals thrown into the mix.
After winning an ARIA Award for Best Jazz Album in 2021 for their LP 'Automatic', followed in 2022 winning the same award for their live album 'Live From South Channel Island', Midlife's ascendancy is down to their ability to write accessible compositions with complex musicianship.
Their growing popularity is proof there's an audience with an appetite for bands who break sonic boundaries and prove modern music can have longevity and ingenuity.
This year Mildlife released their third album 'Chorus', a marvellous journey of smooth soundscapes juxtaposed with catchy and infectious dance grooves and unusual time changes, whilst merging avant garde jazz into the world of pop hitmakers such as Daft Punk and The Neptunes.
A global tour to support the album was scheduled for 2024 as well a few dates in Australia including a Friday night show (5 July) at Sydney's Factory Theatre in the heart of Marrickville. Supporting them were fellow Melbournians and jazz fusion comrades Krakatau.
Much like English progressive rock outfit King Crimson in the '80s, Krakatau dabble into world music employing all the ancient scales of the Indonesian Gamelan tonal system. As an instrumental quartet, they masterfully enticed the early audience members on a mystical and hypnotic trance without missing a beat.
The long compositions were meditative, yet emotionally evocative as the chunky basslines were very reminiscent of the late bassist Chris Squire of the band Yes. Kratatau's enchanting opening set was received warmly and luckily no snakes were present to be hypnotised by their mesmerising music.
A packed theatre waited for Mildlife to arrive onstage and the quintet opened the set with their exotic composition 'Forever', with its silky vocals and light bongo drumming creating a tropical psychedelic atmosphere.
The majority of the set list consisted of songs from the 'Chorus' album, which required guitarist Adam Halliwell to take a pause at times from his funk rhythmic guitar strumming and soloing to play some calming melodic flute.
Like Kratatau's set, the bass always plays a clear leading role in Mildlife's music, especially on the spellbinding composition 'Chorus', which slowly evolves and is packed with various layers of instrumentation as each band member takes a turn to improvise and showcase their idiosyncratic virtuosity.
The cool lounge vibe of songs like 'Sunrise' are a testament to their imaginative songwriting skills and captivated the audience in a live setting.
Standout song of the evening however goes to the futuristic funk epic tune 'Automatic', another notable example of the bass taking the lead alongside a deep synthesiser rhythm and psychedelic vocoder vocals, making it one of the trippiest grooves to ever be composed and would provide the best soundtrack to any science fiction movie.
The crowd loved every moment of the band's entire performance as you can infectiously dance or simply get transported by their absorbing musicianship.
An unexpected encore of a drum solo with fusing synths was the precursor to the final two songs of the evening and the most disco, funk, jazz influenced compositions in their catalogue, 'Vapour' and 'Musica' channelling a 'Saturday Night Fever' bash and throwing into the sonic recipe some Krautrock-inspired experimentation.
The demographic of the night was a healthy mix of all ages and everyone from hippies to hipsters were in attendance. Like Mildlife's diverse sonic palette, so too is their fanbase and if you're new to them, you don't need be an enthusiast or fanatic of jazz music to fully grasp the band's incredible prowess and colourfully inventive discography.
My prediction is that in the next few years they'll be playing bigger venues and joining major music festivals as they fully deserve to have their music heard by the masses.