Mleko – ‘The Feast of St Perpetua’ EP review: Many cooks, endless intrigue
‘Too many cooks in the kitchen’ is usually meant as a pessimistic phrase. But what if all those cooks are actually great? What if they’ve mastered teamwork like no one else? That’s the idea behind Mleko and the seven musicians behind their debut EP, The Feast of St Perpetua.
The Skinny: Manchester’s Mleko are well aware that seven whisk-wielders makes for a very tricky dance around the kitchen. One misstep or miscommunication, and it will all be a complete and utter mess. After forming a few years back, the hold up to releasing their first EP has seen the group hone their craft, making sure everything is tasty. In fact, when they first formed, they basically locked themselves away in a musical boot camp to figure all this out.
In an interview with Far Out, the band’s guitarist Rory Baker said, “It’s a really hard balance to find between ‘oh yeah, we’re switching scenes here, and it’s a disjointed change of scenery, and that’s cool,’ or ‘does it just not flow?’” Writing and making music in Mleko requires a lot of delicacy and ego-checking. So if there’s one thing they needed time to learn, it was how to be softer and quieter.
But a big lineup of multi-instrumentalists can be incredible if you can figure it out. With three guitarists, saxophones and trumpets, as well as your classic bass, synth and drums, there is a lot Mleko can do, but the mastery of their debut EP is their ability to both do it all, and know when not to.
The opening track, ‘Denouement’, offers the perfect example. Beginning slowly and softly, the band builds piece by piece. The spotlight shifts constantly, sometimes landing on Tom Houston and Charlotte Nuta on sax and trumpet, sometimes tightening around Ed Whirledge’s vocals. Then, in big, explosive moments, the whole band surges forward at full force. Yet in the way they start and stop, leaving deliberate pockets of silence, they show just how tightly they work together as a unit.
In other moments, they prove that their broad impact can still hold true when things are gentler. Houston’s saxophone opening to ‘As It Goes’ might just be the release’s finest moment. It feels like the ultimate display of a big band who have nailed how to make a big band work, knowing exactly when to just leave a good thing alone.
When they pile in, the EP’s production is clean and careful enough to make sure there is absolutely no mushiness involved. Nothing is lost, each layer stands crisp and interesting like perfect accompaniments all spread out on a big and beautifully decorated table. Impossible to put into genre boxes, it’s an EP that invites you to simply snack on everything.
Standout Track: ‘Tom’s Tune’
The Verdict: In a post-Black Country, New Road world, a band with a swollen lineup has a lot to contend with. But on their debut EP, Mleko prove themselves to be as vast and varied as their build, working as a unit with equal parts of careful measure and bold carnage.
Release date: 1st May | Producer: Samuel Williams Jones | Label: Heist Or Hit
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out New Music Newsletter
All the latest New Music from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.