Milwaukee Banks are being heralded by music honchos as being revelatory, because they’re Australians who make good hip hop. Revelatory because Australians are hands down, fair dinkum, horse-shit at making hip hop and anyone who cries Illy at me can get jousted by a stingray. I have a problem with these sentiments, simply because Milwaukee Banks aren’t making good hip hop. I’m not even sure that what they’re making could be categorised as hip hop. I guess Thomas is rapping, he’s saying words kind of quick and all, but not one track on the EP is a rap song. None of the tracks found on Rose Waters have that invisible-pull-up-dance momentum or bars that make you want to sip sake on a Suzuki in Osaka Bay. Hip hop is just what their music sounds closest to. I’m not going to rush to shove it into a genre, or liken it to any other artists, because I don’t want to tell you anything that will make you think ‘OMG this shit is like shit I like also, so I should arbitrarily love the shit out of it.’ What I can say is that Milwaukee Banks have succeeded in creating come-down music; and damn-good come-down music at that.
The EP sounds like claps over that ‘listening-to-shit-underwater’ sound, and the lyrics instigate, instead of thought, that feeling of sitting faded in an adjacent room, after retiring from a party. Naturally, Rose Water starts with Pluto Bounce, their single that cocked ears for its adept ‘Jellybean coloured socks’ hook and dissimilar vibe to all Australian hip hop, because they’re not rapping about having more cans of Jim Beam than dollars in their account. Sweater Made of Gold, Purple and Green, and Hazy all feel like the same song, zigzagging through themes of girls, being under the influence, then back to girls. Patty Mills and Rose Water are the main events of the EP, for the humour of the prior and the washed out vocals on the latter. It’s evident that these guys are songwriters foremost, and certainly not rappers; the bars are horrible, the best line on here is something about not being made out of a mould in reference to not being human. The rest are syllables to fill space – but as I said, this isn’t hip hop, and the melodies and hooks speak more to the faded soul than any wordplay could. Give it a listen next time you’re not quite ready to sleep.
BY EDGAR IVAN
Best Track: Pluto Bounce
If You Like These, You’ll Love This: THE WEEKND, ANYONE WITH ‘YUNG’ IN THEIR NAME
In A Word: Emotive
