Mylar

“Beguiling blend of electronica, R&B and soft pop” - The Sunday Times ("Breaking Act")

"packed with moments of understated genius" Hard of Hearing 

“cutting yet concise” DIY

"Counter Culture" Rough Trade

“Colourful, vivacious songwriting” CLASH

a true gem…sure to leave a lasting impression on all who hear it, transcending genres and touching hearts” Acute Pop

“Sure to be a hit with fans of art-pop and indie rock alike” Wonderland

“scintillating 80's pop sensibilities and catchy choruses,” The Scientists of Sound

Art-pop trio Mylar today (16th April) share new EP Lost in The Shuffle ahead of a headline show at The Sebright Arms, London next week (w/support from Pem).

The band's first independent release signals a new era for the group. Now sharing managment with fellow risers Ugly and Terra Twin, while sustaining their love for the 80s pop textures of XTC, The Blue Nile and The Cure, the Mylar of 2024 shed their glossy hues of yesteryear and - via personal upheavals and line-up changes,  - emerge a heavier, rawer and groovier beast: “Everything's a bit more soulful because there’s more at stake.”

Heading up the EP's release comes the frantic rush of new single 'Cold', a skipping, 2 minute cocktail of krautrock jerks and delicate washed-out ambience. A neat summary of both the edges of Mylar's musical sword,  vocalist Tom Short offers more on the track:

"A departure from Synth-Pop world, this track moves to a more live, improvised, frantic sound for us, grooving like a CAN or DEVO track. It starts with pedalling, insistent chords which pierce through like an alarm clock abruptly starting your day. It doesn’t really have a chorus which drives its anxious and chaotic feel. The song is an exaggeration of how frantic and relentless life can be at times, and its pulsing nature pulls you along with it."

With their bustling rhythms, luxurious textures and concise arrangements showcased on recent singles 'Scribbled Sunset' and 'A Man Will Make' - The band have already received national radio backing on BBC Radio 6Music (Tom Ravenscroft) and Radio X (John Kennedy) in addition to press support from indie cornerstones DIY, Rough Trade Counter Culture, Blogotheque, Hard of Hearing, God Is In The TV, Rodeo, The Most Radicalist, 5to9blog and Wax Music. This follows backing garnered from The Sunday Times ("Breaking Act"), Clash, Wonderland, Notion, Brooklyn Vegan, Rough Trade, The Line of Best Fit and So Young from last spring’s lauded Human Statues EP - released via Blue Flowers (Nilufer Yanya, Puma Blue),

With an EP launch to come at Sebright Arms in April, the band continue to add to their list of live achievements. Among them include a residency at West London’s Laylow, supports for John Myrtle, Attawalpa, Moon Panda and Francis Lung, plus sold-out headlines in Manchester (Yes Basement) and London (The Waiting Room).

Mylar are: Tom Short (Lead vocal, bass, keys), Tom Clark (Lead Guitar, Synth), Robert Janke (Drums, Vocals)

‘Lost In the Shuffle’ by Mylar is available for streaming from 16th April 2024

More about Mylar and ‘Lost In The Shuffle’ EP

Mylar’s 3rd EP in as many years offers both a fresh start, and a quiet evolution. Beset by various personal and professional upheavals since the release of Human Statues last Spring, the West London trio quickly headed back into the studio having severed ties with their former label and rejigged their line-up - the tribulations of life inflicting a few more emotional scars along the way.

Seconds into new EP ‘Lost in The Shuffle’, all these fresh batterings and bruises are there for all to hear. Kicking things off with the tender, hypnotic ‘A Man Will Make’ and all it’s 80s-leaning textures, it’s becomes apparent that the sugary-pop aesthetics of Human Statues 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,” confesses lead vocalist Tom Short.

And yet, as the now-three-piece of Short, Tom Clark (Lead guitar, vocals) and Robert Janke (drums, vocals), were originally drawn together - via scheming pints at South London pubs - by a mutual love of alternative 80s pop records of The Cure, XTC, The Blue Nile - the quartet of songs that make up ‘Lost in the Shuffle’ continues to holds those classics close to its chest.

Inspired by the “mysterious and archetypal” lyrical narratives explored by these influences - “Where everything in music now feels extremely literal and diaristic”, notes 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. Whether it’s “looking at that moment in a relationship where you’re questioning whether someone is that interested anymore” (‘Scribbled Sunset’), a figurative study of “frantic and relentless” nature of inner-city living (‘Cold’), or the disappointment of being sold false promises (‘A Man Will Make’), the problems picked apart in these songs feels as much our own as they do Mylar’s.

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”. As a result, come the loose, sumptuous grooves on ‘Wallflower’, broaching the kind of raw, live-band feel shied away from in earlier projects. Also, too the funkiness of ‘Scribbled Sunset’, which arose from an attempt to recreate the slap bass sound from the Seinfeld theme music. And then there’s insistent chords at the opening of ‘Cold’, written in an attempt to resemble an alarm, quite literally nudging the song awake. Indeed, in true XTC fashion, lyrical content and musical frameworks blend seamlessly into one - the anxious, chaotic rhythms and jerks bracing itself the proverbial ‘cold snap’ of song’s central image.

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’. Perhaps this implicit nostalgia found in the music’s very components provides that final piece in this Mylar puzzle. Establishing distance from the rawness of emotion held in the songs gives the music a light, familiar, and welcoming hue. It’s just another element in what make’s Mylar’s music so pretty, touching, and quietly uplifting.