London art-pop trio Mylar have just shared their sylish new single ‘Scribbled Sunset,’ rich with 80s pop textures and taut synth-funk grooves to accompany the announcement of a new EP, Lost In The Shuffle, due for release on 16th April.
With tightly clipped rhythms, their sharp song writing smarts are all finessed inside a lean two-minute package. ‘Scribbled Sunset’ breezes along with a blood-rush urgency while hardly breaking a sweat. With a chorus as cutting as it is succinct as they sing ‘Don’t you have a heart for me?‘ It’s the band’s grooviest and most soulful work to date, as vocalist Tom Short explains:
“This song came together from us trying to use a sound which is essentially the slap bass sound from the Seinfeld intro music. It’s quite upfront and direct and it looks at that moment in a relationship where you’re questioning whether someone is that interested anymore. And that image of a ‘scribbled sunset’ is talking about the need many of us have to paint over things even when they’re clearly not working.”
Chosen as a Sunday Times Breaking Act, they blissfully blend electronica, R &B, pop-art, and indie. Listen here:
The follow-up to last spring’s Human Statues EP, released via Blue Flowers, ‘Scribbled Sunset’ sees the band brave it alone, signalling a new era for the group. While sustaining their love for the 80s pop grooves of XTC, The Blue Nile and The Cure. The Mylar of 2024 sheds their glossy pop hues of yesteryear and – via personal upheavals, line-up changes – emerges a heavier, rawer and groovier beast. Progressing from the sugary-pop aesthetics of their last EP they have shifted towards something altogether richer and more profound
“When you’re questioning whether you’re going to carry on with the project it makes you really want to do your best. Maybe that makes everything a bit more soulful because there’s more at stake,” said lead vocalist Tom Short.
Mylar’s third EP in as many years offers both a fresh start, and a quiet evolution.I nspired by the “mysterious and archetypal” lyrical narratives explored by these influences – “Where everything in music now feels extremely literal and diaristic”, said Short this latest clutch of new material duly provides a sequence of melancholic care-worn tales, addressing each song to their listener with the intimacy of confession, and also the timelessness of a cautionary tale.
Despite these themes, ‘Lost In the Shuffle’ is far from a depressing listen. Quite the opposite. Approaching the studio with a cheeky experimentalism, and drive for succinct, catchy art-pop statements, the band pledged to write “quickly and instinctively, in the studio ,” without fussing so much over different elements”.
Recorded with Michael Smith at RYP recordings in West London (Bess Atwell, Weird Milk, Slaney Bay), another new inclusion to the Mylar method was the “shit but brilliant sound” of late 80s synthesiser, the Korg M1, the instrument made famous for its use in Madonna’s ‘Vogue’. The implicit nostalgia found in the music’s components provides that final piece in the Mylar puzzle. giving the music a light, familiar, and welcoming hue making their music so intricate, touching and quietly uplifting. Lost in the Shuffle EP by Mylar is out on 16th April 2024 (Self-Released)
Mylar will be playing an EP Launch Show on 27th April at The Sebright Arms, London,
Follow Mylar on Instagram for more details.
Photo credit: Lisa Melkumov
