We’ve featured the work of Miguel Gallego a number of times over recent years, charting an evolution from the lo-fi indie rock aesthetic of early project Dicktations through the formation of Miserable chillers and the gradual movement towards a lush baroque pop. The transformation culminated in 2020’s Audience of Summer, a record which drew on influences like Prefab Sprout and Kate Bush to weave what we called “a complex tapestry […] capable of exploring personal growth and the passage of time, and interrogate humankind’s relationship with the natural world.”
In the intervening years, Gallego has pushed the Miserable chillers project in new directions, from a full soundtrack for totally 100% real SNES sleeper hit to an album based entirely around field recordings taken inside an apartment. Written during a baking kick, latest single ‘Wild Ferment’ takes its inspiration from fermentation, namely how life and decay are so inherently tangled together. For a process of transformation can come to form its own kind of preservation, and sometimes change is the only way to avoid losing everything altogether.
Bubbling up In these long dark days
I change my form so I won’t disappear
For what leaves and what slips away
Our only test is to somehow find a taste
Cover art taken from the ‘Splendor Solis’