Blackmilk - The Walrusand the Wine

Thu 6th Dec, 2007 in Music Reviews

While Blackmilk share their name with a Massive Attack tune, any influence the indie and psychedelic band took from the trip-hop supremos was subtle at most on their early recordings. But with The Walrus and the Wine, the five-piece from the Perth hills have delivered five tracks that cover far more ground than their earlier material.

Opening number Hummingbird begins with the full, wall-of-sound instrumentation we’ve seen on Silverchair’s more polished releases, while vocalist James Sherry doesn’t sound too dissimilar to Mr Daniel Johns. Trailing off with a 1920s-style pop soloist over a simple drum loop, the band’s less generic influences are more evident than ever.

And the generic sounds are left even further behind, as tracks Europa and Roll the Dice borrow the sounds of Doves and Pablo Honey -era Radiohead, moving from arpeggiated and slide guitars in the verses through to effects and keys-heavy arrangements in big, dramatic choruses.

Keep Moving On is probably the least gripping of the tracks on offer, as the minimal instrumentation exposes Sherry’s vocals as a little too ‘chair. But as the song gradually builds toward its climax and meanders off at its conclusion, those comparisons are just a minor issue. And again, it’s the gradual buildup where closing track The War is Never Won proves its worth. Slow and steady, Blackmilk creep up to the song’s major climax, finally landing the punch they’d been threatening for so long. But rather than going out in a blaze of glory, there’s another four minutes of warped guitar sounds over a scattered beat that sounds like George Harrison playing Massive Attack or Massive Attack playing George Harrison.