PHNTM043
Milo Korbenski
5th May 2024
When You Gonna Tell 'Em the Truth, Aaron?
Rising, enigmatic Brighton songwriter Milo Korbenski delivers his debut album proper When You Gonna Tell ‘Em the Truth, Aaron?, a stunning collection of haunted, heavy, unique art-dream-indie-pop earworms.
Milo Korbenski is a shadowy, anonymous Brighton solo musician only publicly seen in a featureless white mask, Stetson and denim jacket. However, his deeply expressive take on lo-fi slacker indie invokes a heartfelt intimacy, singing straight from the soul. This new album - an official debut following a period of self-releasing - displays endless catchy-as-hell hooks, clever lyrical wordplay, and deceptively lean instrumentation that belies its own simplicity.
The music of WYGTETTA? (Milo’s own stylisation) crosses references points as broadly spread as Kurt Vile, Helado Negro, Black Sabbath, The xx, The Cocteau Twins, Siouxsie Sioux, Jagwar Ma and Calvin Johnson while retaining a vitally singular energy. Milo’s underlying unreality is more haunted than the indie-leaning acts mentioned here, and the readymade homespun cassette sonics lend a charm beyond the prettified sheen of his pop influences.
A true storyteller, Milo tells us “every song on the album is about a dysfunctional character enduring a relationship that isn’t really working.” Throughout the record, we are introduced to a series of surreal, mythologised narratives that make up a wide, interconnected arc. “There is a lack of honesty to the narrator's stories throughout the album, hence the title: When You Gonna Tell ‘Em the Truth, Aaron?”