Formed in Brussels in 2017, Milk TV has drunk from many sources, quenching an enormous thirst for inspiration to create a singular universe, imbued with nostalgia and cynicism towards Anglo-Saxon pop culture. That of cheap TV programs, giant milk bottle ads, but above all of the underground, from New York no-wave to the Californian noise scene. Good Food For Mean Kids, the band's debut album released at the end of 2020, is a curious cocktail where Primus meets James Chance, where XTC flirts with Devo, but always with malice and decomplexion, with the air of not touching it. As a result, the band has rapidly built up a fine live reputation in Belgium and France, playing alongside the likes of Traumhaus and Crack Clouds as part of the post-punk resurgence.
With "NEO GEO", a new album on Brussels-based label Exag Records (You Said Strange, Frankie), the trio take their music to even more versatile playgrounds. Recorded following a long tour, the nine tracks on this album form an astonishing art-rock kaleidoscope, perhaps more intuitive and effective than its predecessor. While the band's trademark bass chorus and jerky, exotica-morning rhythms (the talking-heavy 02 6.O.4.N.C.8) are to be found, some tracks give way to a more punky, immediate energy (Run To Buy Vacuum, Ascendant Of The Jugular Vein). Among them, Shell Fantasy, a dark, haunting ballad, evokes the heady gimmicks of Wire or Crack Clouds. The album closes with the hypnotic Murmuur and its final development, all repetition and experimentation, leaving you free to imagine the intensity of this record on stage.
