Milosh: gig review

The relatively new upstairs section of Whelan’s was the venue to which Toronto’s Mike Milosh returned, courtesy of the ever-busy Foggy Notions posse.
The Canadian singer-songwriter of micro-produced electronica is accompanied on the night by the visuals of No Disco and Today FM legend, Donal Dineen, and he ambles onto the stage, hands in pockets, with only a guitarist, two mics and a keyboard, following a pulsating double laptop set from support act, Storkboy Choons (keep your eyes peeled for this pair).
On album format, Milosh oozes a kind of comedown clicks-and-twiddles electronic music; the kind you might appreciate waking up to on an orange-hued beach with the sun making it’s early morning efforts to shake you awake after a 7-hour pounding DJ set in an 8000-person capacity Mallorcan warehouse.
Unfortunately, he eschews this approach tonight in an essentially percussion-free live set that mostly features him looping, then harmonising, his vocals as the guitarist plucks far too loudly on an instrument that turns out to be a loaner from a local music shop, after his own was damaged during their flight over here.
Milosh’s voice is undoubtedly beautiful; soaring and dipping as he works hard at the various vocal layerings and tweakings throughout a set that includes, You Make Me Feel (from his first full-length of the same name), The City, Awful Game (from his soon-to-be-released new album) and one of his best songs, It’s Over.
However the decision tonight, while on a mini-tour of this country, to go with more stripped-down versions (if there could be more stripped-down versions) of his songs, tends to diminish their appeal and draws unnecessary attention to his often whispery, ethereal voice, which seems a little naked without the pleasurable aural noodlings of his album work. His recorded songs work because of the subtle, offbeat, electronica flourishes and without these some songs seem, if not flat, then inoffensively average. While the projections certainly complement the evening, Dineen seems to disappear after two songs and Milosh, despite his best efforts, is unable to dazzle the crowd in the way we know his songs can. Full marks for the vocal performance but musically, too much was left out. He is due to play the Electric Picnic this year so let's hope he uses the keyboards at that..