Flame’s debut live EP Medea In Blue offers a straightforward document of a band whose music appears to depend heavily on interaction, dynamics and atmosphere. Recorded live in a rehearsal studio in Edinburgh, the six-track release avoids excessive polish in favour of preserving the feel of a shared performance.
Across the EP, Flame move between grunge, shoegaze, folk, funk and progressive rock without settling too firmly into any one style. The result is varied, but there’s enough consistency in the performances to keep the EP coherent as it plays.
Recent singles ‘Naive’ and ‘Heat’ provide some of the clearest reference points for the band’s current direction, while ‘Tornado’ sits as one of the more enchanting cuts within this live context. The guitars are given space to expand, the rhythm section remains prominent, and the vocals carry much of the emotional weight throughout.
But the live setting is crucially important here. From start to finish, the EP allows some of the natural roughness and movement of the band’s sound to remain. It gives the material a stronger sense of place and makes the release feel closer to the way Flame intend the material to be experienced.
Following appearances at Party At The Palace and a headline show at King Tut’s Summer Nights, Medea In Blue arrives at a useful point in the band’s development. It captures the qualities they are currently building around without trying to turn the release into something larger than it needs to be.
As a debut live EP, Medea In Blue works well as a concise introduction to Flame’s sound and the kind of performance-driven identity they are continuing to develop.