Mikel – Middle-Earth and Chill Review

What does Mikel sound like?

Lo-fi beats to chill to – infused with Mikel’s latest inspiration.

The review of ‘Middle-Earth and Chill’ by Mikel

Howard Shore’s soundtrack for Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is full of memorable melodies, motifs and themes. It is closer to a game soundtrack than a film one in my view, and it’s all the better for it. Lo-fi artist Mikel, who makes his own music alongside Zelda and Pokemon chillout arrangements, clearly thinks so too. Howard Shore’s score is the inspiration for this 14-track lo-fi chillout album.

None of the original score is sampled. Instead, Mikel arranges the original melodies into piano, synths, music boxes, woodwind, guitar and choir samples before adding chillout beats to the mix. It brings a sharpened focus on the main melodies as they’ve been quantised to fit specific rhythms. It makes each song either peppy and upbeat, or more majestic with its ethereal tones.

The upbeat tracks are playful and bouncy. ‘Concerning Hobbits’ is a fantastic opener for its piano arrangement that fits around the skipping beats. Its bubbly, bumbling, rolling notes are a tonic. ‘The Breaking of the Fellowship’ also has an uplifting tone as the melody is gently noodles from an acoustic guitar with a gentle humming choir underneath. ‘Into the West’ has a bright piano that evokes Chariots of Fire.

The second element of the album comes from majestic mystery and an ethereal tone. ‘Rivendell’, ‘The Council of Elrond’, ‘Lothlorien’, ‘Evenstar’ all benefit from some beautiful synth string and choral effects. They are calming and soothing, yet have plenty of bass and rhythm to get the listener to groove. Sometimes the bass on this album cuts a little too heavily through the mix on my admittedly old speakers and it’s on these more mysterious – slightly spooky – tracks where it fuzzes. They all bring grace and elegance to the chillout session though and are some of the albums’ highlights.

The third element of Mikel’s album is the art of the caravan song. These are tracks that transform big themes of honour, drama and courage into a song to march onwards to. ‘Forth Eorlingas’ has a purposeful shuffle that strides forward with gusto. ‘The King of the Golden Hall’ uses its staunchly proud motif as if the track is a Celtic wade through waist-high mud to reach home. ‘The Ring goes South’ is like a sister track, using tick-tock percussion and muted acoustic guitars to root an overworld theme in folklore. Possibly my favourite rearrangement is ‘Pippin’s Song’. It merges the urgency of an English folk lament with a trip-hop waltz. It is part chillout, part classical and part Olde English folk. The song is purposely understated for most of its duration so that when the strings flood in for the main motif, it piles in the emotion.

Mikel is a fantastic producer and arranger of music who clearly understands what makes a strong chillout arrangement. Lord of the Rings wasn’t an immediate or obvious choice but Mikel makes it work beautifully. This album has pace, poise and some excellent sonic choices that merge lo-fi, classical, Celtic, English folk and ambient vocals together in a powerful way. Now I want to know if Mikel has a Letterboxd account to see what else he might tackle next. A lovely addition to his discography.

Recommended track: Concerning Hobbits

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