MieMiedos approaches electronic music through repetition, texture and gradual transformation. Based on the Yunnan Plateau in Southwest China, her work is informed by a life spent moving between Inner Mongolia, southern China and Yunnan, with geography and changing surroundings becoming part of the way she thinks about sound.
Elsewhere
“Elsewhere” opens with unusual electronic tones and reversed sounds, with repeating patterns gradually establishing the shape of the track. A kick introduces momentum underneath, while additional layers begin to converge around the central rhythmic ideas.
There is plenty happening in the production, but the arrangement continues to shift dynamically as different sounds move in and out of focus. Rhythmic elements gradually become more prominent, eventually pushing the track towards a four-to-the-floor groove.
The movement from abstract electronic textures towards something more rhythmically direct works well. The busier sound design remains present, but the emerging beat gives the latter stages a stronger sense of direction.
Between Coordinates
“Between Coordinates” takes a more repetitive approach, built around a synth riff with an unusual, slightly atonal harmonic character. The pattern provides a constant reference point while the surrounding textures build, change and become increasingly processed.
There is an IDM quality to the production, particularly in the relationship between repetition and sound design. At times it brings to mind some of Aphex Twin’s more abstract electronic work, while retaining MieMiedos’ own restrained approach to structure and texture.
The track is the title piece from the forthcoming Between Coordinates EP, which draws directly on MieMiedos’ experience of moving between different parts of China. Its accompanying imagery centres on an orange suspended from a concrete pillar near the coordinates 24°N, 102°E, gradually changing from fresh fruit into a shrivelled shell.
That idea of transformation fits naturally with the music. Repetition provides the foundation, but the sounds around it continue to change, making “Between Coordinates” feel less static than its central synth pattern initially suggests.
Across both tracks, relatively simple musical ideas become foundations for much more detailed electronic environments. “Elsewhere” gradually allows its four-to-the-floor groove to push through the surrounding layers, while “Between Coordinates” keeps its repeating synth figure in place as the textures around it continue to transform.
