Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
We cannot but help to embrace the creatures of bad habits, we cheer secretly on the enigmatic bad guy taunting the hero on the large screen, we take to our hearts the bad boy and girl with the rough name in the neighbourhood, and why, because it adds the glimmer of excitement to our lives. We are involved in the storyline of Frankenstein, not because we are turned on by science and innovations, but because we want to see the creature created by the Doctor’s passion, live.
Scott Edward Midlane is not a man or musician of bad habits, but he does create creatures that live up to the expectation of the fan, of those who sit happily in the shadows as the movements are tinkered with, the thoughts re-arranged, and when the time is right, see that the latest creation as Third Man Phenomenon, Creatures Of Dark Habits, is yet another seamless colossal who deserves having its side of the story heard.
In a world of the Progressive thought, it often takes an album of such deep rich introspection to filter through any of the routine customs and usual patterns that have been hammered into the ground as signposts, this way here for the attraction, they declare, and normally when you get to the point where you can see inside the cage, you realise that the temptation was misplaced, the spectacle is one of shame, not so much an insight in to the human condition, but instead a Victorian freak show, one that should never come to be.
Third Man Phenomenon has a different route, the creature is one that is worth investigating, the mind is a powerful tool after all, and it is a creation humming with the electrical, and dynamic pulse of its owner throughout.
Across tracks such as Rag Doll, Fuck Monkies, Murmurations of the Dead, Moment of Unclarity, The Fall and Burn The Witch what comes across is the passion for the black and white horror, the delving into the outer reaches of the mind and finding that even in that dark space, can live and breathe a monster of absolute purity and allure.
Scott Edward Midlane has created some incredible moments in music, ones that have not had the wider talk and appreciation they fully deserve, with Third Man Phenomenon that enjoyment of music and story-telling should be evident, should be congratulated fully.
The creature stirs, it has shed any bad habits that others may perceive, and comes out, blinking into the broad daylight and smiling at the thought of the tales to come.
Ian D. Hall