‘When darkness comes for you,
When light goes out,
When everything is dead,
Take my hand.’
When choosing music to review for Joyzine, it’s always personally interesting to encounter literal descriptions as ‘They’re sort of like Sigur Ros meets the Cocteau Twins meets the ghosts from Scooby Doo!’ Yup, that definitely works. I’m sold.
Pink Milk are a Swedish duo who hail from the medieval castle-ringed island of Gotland (a suitably ‘Scooby Doo’ location, for sure) and are well known in Sweden for their singular, dystopian, reverb-heavy sound. Their past history is impressive, as they’ve played large festivals, been heard on Radio 6 and also been praised by a number of musical icons, including The Clash.
So, to the new single, ‘Blue Eyes (Rivers of Glass)’. Essentially, it’s an atypical, everyday tale expressing an 80’s-inspired ballad about a vampire who’s unhappily in love with a day walker. It’s also the first track from an upcoming album, Ultraviolet.
Musical events begin with thunder and lightning, which could easily have been sampled from a 1970’s episode of ‘Scooby Doo’, quickly followed by a catchy, dream-like drumbeat and spacey chords. The vocals also have a hazy effect and it’s very easy to begin drifting away to the sound being created, especially when further atmospheric guitar sounds meet with similar backing vocals of a ‘haunted choir’ to continue the overall eerie effect.
The video is perfect for the song and owes everything to the creativity of singer and drummer Maria Forslund, who has attempted to recreate the effects of early Hannah Barbera animation (‘Scooby Doo’ again). The impressive results scream pure fun and include choreography from animated mummies, vampires, ghouls, skulls and more.
The end result is very catchy and had me hitting the repeat button many times. Definitely a band to tune into, especially if you’re into laid-back, dreamy, reverb-heavy music that just encourages you to drift away with a happy smile on your face.
‘Blue Eyes (River of Glass)’ is out now and comes from the new album Ultraviolet which is due for release on 22nd September via Black Hair Records.
Find out more on Pink Milk’s official website
Review by Kev Milsom
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