Emerging victorious after their previous EP XXXX Bitter Irony and their debut Stress to Impress, Milton Man Gogh continue to reinforce a mutual love of their influences (such as Meshuggah, Donny McCaslin, Aphex Twin and Bela Bartok), the band continues to diversify with collaborations from vocalist Kristin Berardi and guitarist Toby Wren to create their most compelling and diverse work to date. How to be Big and Small’s release comes off the tail end of a brief hiatus and continual critical praise for their previous works, earning the applause from Echoes and Dust and Kill Your Stereo, along with placing in the finals for the 2018 International Songwriting Competition.
“To be honest, we’ve always had a bit of a running joke that we don’t really know what we are, genre wise – too jazz to be math rock and too math to be jazz. Not metal enough and so on,” begins upright bassist Zac Sakrewski. “Because of that, we think a lot of that comes down to what we have listened to, how we interact together and our past experiences. I think those styles are great and there are so many innovators out there, but if there was one thing a lot of bands from those styles are missing, it’s balance. You can’t veil an average song in technicality and call it great, much like you can’t take a great song and play it to the point where the meaning is obscured, too many of the same tones and ideas for my liking too. There is a fine duality to all that I feel we are still figuring out ourselves. The journey is a lot of fun though!”
Serving as a measure of Milton Man Gogh’s textural and technical prowess, TV Was Better When I Was Younger is the first single from How to be Big and Small (At the Same Time). Hot flushes of riffwork, moments of instrumental complexity and a distinctively metal-styled finish paint an image of a Milton Man Gogh who are ready to set themselves – and the Australian contemporary jazz scene – to new and exciting standards.
“TV is about that feeling of nostalgia you get,” begins upright bassist Zac Sakrewski, “flicking through channels on the couch on a Saturday morning with a bowl of cereal in hand and realising the entertainment just isn’t what it used to be for whatever reason. The twists and turns this song takes emulates both the channels changing back and forth to different scenes, and the growing agitation that you could be doing something else.”
Milton Man Gogh’s ‘How To Be Big & Small (At The Same Time)’ is out 21 June on Art As Catharsis.
Their new single, ‘TV Was Better When I Was Younger’, is out now.
