Miles Kane & The Evils

Miles Kane is probably an artist you haven’t heard of before unless you’re a fan of the Arctic Monkeys and Alex Turner. Kane and Turner have been friends since the 2000s and even created a band together called The Last Shadow Puppets. The two released an album, “The Age of the Understatement,” in 2008 and a second album, “Everything You’ve Come to Expect,” in 2016.
Kane’s most popular song, “Come Closer,” is actually the first track of his first album, “Colour Of The Trap” released in 2011. According to Spotify, Kane has two other songs from his first album that happen to be in his top five most popular songs list: “Rearrange” being his fourth most popular, and the title track being his fifth most popular. Kane’s second most popular song is “Don’t Forget Who You Are,” which is also the title track of his second album. His current third most popular song (as of May 23, 2024) is “Mr Midnight” from his latest EP released on May 3, 2024.
Kane’s new EP, “Miles Kane & The Evils,” was produced and played by himself and two friends, Dave Bardon and Oscar Robertson. This a first for Miles Kane as it is an all instrumental EP. There are only four songs, accumulating to only nine minutes.
The first song, “Mr Midnight,” stands out because of its surf rock genre compared to his consistent rock and roll discography with the use of a certain dum beat throughout the song. This particular drum beat can be heard in the famous “Miserlou” by Dick Dale. The beginning of the song is also very similar to “Walk, Don’t Run” by The Ventures, another popular surf rock song.
Just after the first minute of the song you get that drum roll interrupted by two notes which many surf rock songs incorporate. For example, “Wipe Out” by The Surfaris does something similar, but instead of being two notes, the drum roll is interrupted by a chord. Another surf rock element is the glissando (a continuous slide upward or downward) near the end, which is similarly played at the very beginning of “Pipeline” by The Chantays.
The second song, “Fingerless Gloves,” doesn’t share as many similarities with surf rock except for the distinct drum beat. It’s a lot more rock-oriented with the distortion on the guitar. However, near the end, the use of tremolo (a wavering effect in a musical tone, different from vibrato) and the whammy bar (a lever on the guitar used to temporarily change the pitch of the strings, giving it a vibrato) before returning to rock gives you something more somber which the cover, being a surfing skeleton, would suggest.
The third song, “Surfing Leopard,” is more surf rock than the last but it’s not as light and upbeat as “Mr Midnight” with the bending of the notes on the guitar. In addition, just before the second minute of the song, the guitar plays some high notes before scaling up and down with lower notes along a drum roll in the background. Another example of this song being more ominous would be when it ends with a certain chord that sounds like a question with vibrato.
The last song, “Dark Room,” is an odd man out with its slow-pace. It fakes you out with a drum roll, making you think the song is about to pick up speed, but it doesn’t. Overall, the rest of the song does sound a lot more like what a typical Miles Kane song would sound before the song ends with a slow-paced melody and some vibrato.
This new EP of Kane’s is incredible. He had only released his last album, One Man Band, back in August of 2023, which had a completely different tone, and has come back with a completely new genre. Miles Kane & The Evils may be only four songs and less than 10 minutes, but the EP is truly worth listening to. I would give this EP a five out of five stars.