WL//WH Review VANISHING MUFFINS
Our ‘old’ friends from Indonesia, the Jakarta-based noise pop outfit Vanishing Muffins, drop the 4-track “Revolution” EP, full of loud fuzzy guitars shrouded in shoegaze-y haze and sticky angsty harmonies with gloomy undertones, clearly inspired by the C86 aesthetic, via the likewise strictly DIY local label disanorak.
Full-on swirly and buzzy mode, the opening “Hollow” offers a dizzy combination of hypnotic rhythms, catchiness, abrasiveness, and melancholy, with unison vocals, melting beautifully with a childlike twee quality, over sizzling shimmery waves of distorted instrumentation to explore being inside a favorite hollow shell.
In the dazed, reflective “Song For The Static”, punctuated by the steady downtempo pace of a crashing drum machine and sonorous shaking bass throbs, after watching a loved one walk away, extremely sad, layered long breaths float through achingly reverberating, groovy droning sheets, to argue ‘Wish you’d go far away.”
Swept by a wobbling, erratic vortex of shuffling beats, meandering tight bass pulses, billowing feedback and restless whorls of high-pitched soaring wails, in “Liminal”, high angst and low brooding dual energies groovily admit “I can’t feel you anymore”.
Finally, “Shrinking Violet” ends in bittersweet, jarring atmospheric JAMC sonics, churned by insistent moody bass lines, with whirring radiant nostalgic melodies that bulge on and scrape fearful pleas that just want to be left alone after a lifetime of unwanted wishy-washy attention.
Jakarta pop kids deliver their most multifaceted and bold, yet cohesive work so far, with swells of distorted brilliance and infectious off-kilter charm.
Vanishing Muffins’ 4-track “Revolution” EP is also available on ltd. Cassette directly from the Disanorak label.Keep up with Vanishing Muffins:
