Kick Start Your Summer with the New Live Set from Mildlife

Recorded on a remote island, this breezy set is a great sampler for the Australian band.

I’m not usually one to feature live records, but we’re changing things up with Mildlife’s Live from South Channel Island for a few reasons this week.

First, I ventured pretty deep into this week’s new releases and had one of the rare occasions where I came away without finding a brand spanking new record that I could give the “coveted” Check This Out! Stamp of Approval. More importantly, Live from South Channel Island is sure to be a set you reach for throughout the summer.

Recorded in March of last year, this sizzling collection features selections from Mildlife’s first two albums, Phase and Automatic. Like any excellent live record, Live from South Channel Island takes already unmissable songs and allows them to breathe. It also helps that the band traveled to this wee atoll in Port Phillip, the harbor in which Melbourne sits. The serene setting is an abandoned fort on manufactured land that is now the home to various wildlife and previously belonged to the Boonwurrung people.

From the liner notes: “Before the island existed, the Boonwurrung people of the Greater Kulin Nation have lived on the land and waterways this performance was held on. Mildlife pays respect to their elders past, present and emerging and recognise that sovereignty has never been ceded.”

Mildlife is a band that there is no genre label for - their mostly instrumental soundscapes drift from psychedelic jams to jazz, funk, prog-rock, and everything in between. Automatic was an absolute favorite of mine in 2020 and is the first album I reviewed on medium.com before starting Check This Out!, which you can revisit here.

If you’re unfamiliar with these Aussies, Live from South Channel Island is a splendid sampler that will surely have you digging into their duo of studio releases. In addition to their current European tour, they will also be supporting Khruangbin and Kamasi Washington later this year.

So let’s cut to the chase, the entire concert is here on Youtube, and now it’s your turn to be swept away amongst the waves and heady synth jams.

Live from South Channel Island is available now on vinyl from Heavenly Records.