Album Review: Miss Mellow, Dancing Through the Earth
Dancing Through the Earth is the second full-length from Munich, Germany, four-piece Miss Mellow, delivered through Sound Effect Records. It comes behind an impressively funky 2023 self-titled debut, and gives an immediate impression of growth around the band’s core approach, which accounts not only for that funk, but the heavy, classic-prog backdrop against which it rests, and a scope that includes a couple takes on world music for what seems to be an expanding palette. The album runs nine songs and 46 minutes and is likewise manageable and satisfying to immerse, as the four-piece of guitarist/vocalist Joshua Lilienthal, bassist/vocalist David Stockinger, guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Michele Loria and drummer Niccolò Schmitter proffer their own creative reach in confident style, able to carry the listener through the initial quirk of “Dancing Through the Earth I,” which leads off as the first of four-parts of the title-track, alternating between about two and a half and four and a half minutes each; one two one two.
A somewhat curious decision to split up “Dancing Through the Earth” when Miss Mellow here and in the past have demonstrated no aversion to long songs — closer “Stop the Strive” tops 12 minutes, and on the debut, “Who Abides?” was just over 10 — but each shift between the parts indeed brings a change in the movement in question. It’s weird, but actually, it’s really effective through that in telling the listener a few things they need to know going into the rest of Dancing Through the Earth, which holds to the method of changing up mood/vibe, whether that’s “Kanonen” making a fuzzy thrust over neo-psych shuffle, pairing drift and nod later on, keys and guitar intertwining for a subtly rich effect on a tune that’s still so much about movement, or the also-busted-up “Blackout I” and “Blackout II,” which also get their own “Prelude” of manipulated piano before making a run through the party en route to a kind of clearheaded yacht psych, still drawing from funk and soul, and stately and bluesy in the delivery. It’s not about heft, then, or really anywhere, but about the twists and the variety of textures and the grooving use to which they might be put.
One should not neglect to mention Alex Hartl at OGM Studios, who recorded, mixed (with David Stockinger) and mastered the album. Miss Mellow are that much more able to cast an organic persona in this material for the naturalism in the recording and the breadth being put to use in the mix. That’s not to say “Stop the Strive,” with a guest appearance from Junsuke Kondo on guitar and vocals and a tense strum in its second half that feels like it comes from Mediterranean folk, having taken off from the soothing stretch of harmonized voices — anyone who remembers Scott Reeder‘s solo album might have a context for appreciation there — followed by a bit of Eastern-tinged guitar meander. Wherever it might be coming from, it feels about half a world away from the subdued drift of the smooth-prog in “Dancing Through the Earth II,” which shifts from its highlight solo to a keyboard-led boogie before a sudden turn to blowout riffing brings the arrival of “Dancing Through the Earth III,” the various movements united as much through differentiation as by consistency. That is to say, Miss Mellow are in the process of showing their listeners who they are as a band at this point and perhaps who they’re going to be as their reach outside the heavy-psych norms continues to grow.
Though short at 2:22, “Dancing Through the Earth III” is more foreboding, with drama in the keys and guitar and a doomlier lurch met by shoutier (but still not really shouted) vocals. It isn’t chaos, but it hints toward it, so fitting of course that Miss Mellow completely pull the rug out from under it with “Dancing Through the Earth IV,” with a lighthearted instrumental stretch shifting into a quirky verse and an affect that’s either funk-prog or prog-funk; I’m not entirely sure where the line is and I like it that way. Jojo Winter guesting on percussion would seem to be a factor in that movement (for sure in the closer), but maybe there’s just a lot going on otherwise, but the point is that even as the last part of the four-parter hits a quick melodic finish, “Kanonen” is ready on a direct bleed, so part of what Miss Mellow are so successful in doing here is not only creating a space for the listener in their music, but bringing the audience with them on these changes. If you’re willing to follow where Miss Mellow lead, and they largely make doing so a pleasure, then it’s possible to find ethereal resonance even in the most earthbound of their flowing, interwoven parts. To wit, the urgency with which “Kanonen” gets underway is met later on with a slowdown bridge (they bring it back to end, no worries; a fuzzy thrust Truckfighters might smile to hear), and finishes with what seems almost like a goof of harmonized guitar, but that nonetheless confirms attention to detail through every step of the song. Nothing here is happening by accident.
Piano and voice in “Prelude” — prefacing the vocal harmonies in “Stop the Strive,” and why not — finish in a wash of synth that transitions into the initial swirl and arrival of the clear-toned strum in “Blackout I.” Again, this is the party, and if “Blackout II” is the comedown, it must’ve been a cool time. That leaves “Stop the Strive” somewhat on its own — or would, if it weren’t for another immediate change from one track to the next — but the single-part closer sums up the direction of the material preceding capably, while likewise finding somewhere of its own to go. Still purposeful, Miss Mellow do dirty-up the guitar tone for their last stretch of riffing, but it’s the fleetness of the leads around that denser fuzz that stand even more for who the band are and the manner in which they’ve honed these songs, as they not only return to the verse from what might be the blowout finish that would end so many other records, but they then turn around and find another level of distortion to unveil the real blowout in the last measures of “Stop the Strive,” making the most of one more opportunity to bask in the character so vividly portrayed in their craft.
Miss Mellow, Dancing Through the Earth (2025)
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Tags: Dancing Through the Earth, Germany, Miss Mellow, Miss Mellow Dancing Through the Earth, Munich, Sound Effect Records
Cool album. But loses $231.01 in rating points from me for overcharging shipping to USA. This will knock it well out of my top 20 of 2025 lol
Hi Joe, thanks for the compliment! As we state on bandcamp we do not ship to the US, but unfortunately on bandcamp there is no way to adjust the shipment settings (except for setting up a price) so we were forced to put the shipment costs to the maximum and write a note. Please visit http://www.soundeffect-records.gr/dancing-through-the-earth if you want to order a vinyl, they will ship it you for a very reasonable cost (around 10 dollars I think). Thank you! – Nico // Miss Mellow
This release is fantastic. I judge each release on the music and do not judge it on shipping costs.If the shipping is to expensive i will not order but to judge it on shippings costs is rather unfair that has nothing to do with the quality of the release.