7/23/2016

Review: Milkmustache - "Imagine Us Together"

Milkmustache - Imagine Us Together
(Boring Productions 2016)

Felt melodies clinging to a tape hiss flannelgraph - Milkmustache is a dull crayon's waxy trail, playdough rolled into misshapen spheres, Ritz cracker crumbs ground into a carpet floor. The Cantonese trio's debut EP, Imagine Us Together, bubbles over with unpasteurized charm. It's a musical space heater, emitting warmth produced by the friction between its gritty shoegaze chords and fur-lined leads, a plush-textured combination that recalls Yuck's noisier cuts as much as it does Built To Spill's Keep It Like A Secret - as brittle and powdery as the milk left on an overlooked upper lip. 

China's BoringProductions imprint is responsible for some of the coziest pop nestled in Bandcamp's "twee" search tag and Imagine Us Together is perhaps the label's most timelessly mellow release to date. Monolithic as Ride's Nowhere and as snugly insulated as a Sundays record, not even the late summer heat can put a damper on this EP's thermal glow. The CD even comes with a BoringProductions board game. Nothing could be more jangle-pop than that.