Time-Knapped Chanteuse – Millie Sievert and the Radioactive Five (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

It’s been a strange day on the reviewing front. Already under my belt today is a wholly AI-generated workout soundtrack and a spoken word poetry album, so it already feels like the perfect time to explore the latest album by a time-travelling Edwardian lady who has found herself stuck in the present via a chronologically untethered gig and a mass abduction by the mystical and, to be honest, magnificent musical mischief makers eNuminous & Archimedes. And so, having had her head swayed by their, even for the present day, strange musical machinations, Millie Sievert, has done the obvious thing, embraced musical technologies, formed a rock and roll band and set about releasing albums on a very regular basis! Well, what else is a girl supposed to do in that situation?

And so, Time-Knapped Chanteuse is Millie Sievert and the Radioactive Five’s third album to date and takes in a mixture of man and machine music, humanly made sonics and algorithmic acoustics, Edwardian sensibilities and post-modern musicality, a taste of the future, made by someone from the past currently stuck in the present. (Surely, Netflix should be all over the Emily Blunt-fronted TV series rights.)

In the meantime, music is the medium and what delicious, odd and deliciously odd music it is, although anyone following the story so far won’t be surprised to find that.

The opener, In One Ear… spirals around the sounds of her era, dexterous, solo jazz piano slowly being cocooned by a bigger band sound and her neat vocals, which seem to wander between the emerging flapper scene and more modern pop vibes. And that, perhaps, is the perfect template for what is to follow. It is as much her mixing of eras as the technology available that defines this head mix.

Spiral Platter of Optimism blends the chanteuse-ry of the turn of her century with a lucisd take on dreamscape pop from the more recent one. Pit sits at the intersection of theatre singalong and more operatic sonics, and Universe Hymn takes in Polynesian music vibes and the sort of vocals that Karl Jenkins used to such great effect on his Adiemus suite of music.

Ironically, songs such as Final Clearance Sale feel almost medieval in their delivery, clean, spacious and angelic, whilst Luminous Library is a strange blend of spoken word and sonic avant-gardening. Perhaps the strangest creation on this album of strange creations, and also one of my favourites, is Stillness on the Battlefield (Cold Day in Hell II), a song which evokes the chilling aftermath of the field of combat through keening winds and calmer voices before turning into an industrial sonic squall. Both aspects of the music have much to say about pathos and remorse, life lost, and blood spilt.

It is interesting that it takes such a time-shifted visitor to our era to make some of the most interesting, intricate, forward-thinking, and adventurous music of our day. But I guess you can’t conform to the rules if you don’t know what they are. A lesson for every modern creative to ponder.

Play the full album HERE