Those who know a thing or two about style tell us that retro is back and will undoubtedly, until next season anyway, continue to dominate music and fashion. Fashion isn’t an immediately obvious adjunct to Welsh band Milk, but they have nonetheless successfully plundered the past to provide the musical motivation for their EP “Alpha”.
Plundering the past doesn’t, of course, make for musical greatness unless a band has a purpose that exceeds their influences and also the versatility to turn all that they have learned into something different. Milk do just that by adding not only enough metal – such as in “Science is a Language” - to give bridge breaking weight to their extended riffs but also an unexpected element of irony – such as in “Bishop’s Dick” - to keep your brain engaged while your head is crushed.
So, while these four songs could well have fallen out the rock time machine of the early seventies with some errant psychedelic influences in pursuit, Milk prove themselves more than capable of accelerating their music straight by the fashion police and right into the future.
Best song? “Bishop’s Dick” (of course!)
The verdict? Smarter than you would expect of a riff heavy band.