Parker Sprout – Milk In The Sun
Coming full circle, Parker Sprout returns to Portland label Moon Glyph twelve years after his band Velvet Davenport was the first artist signed to the roster. Also the nephew of Tobin Sprout of Guided By Voices, Parker’s solo material can’t help but follow a similarly jangling, melodic strain of indie-rock, but Milk In The Sun is more consistently indebted to gentle psych-pop too, not to mention the woozy shoegaze haze that hangs over parts of the recording as well.
An unlikely Moon Glyph resident at this point despite his early provenance, Parker Sprout is also an adept but abstract practitioner of experimental collage and the hypnagogic interludes that punctuate Milk In The Sun more than justify its catalogue number. Comprising a quarter of the 25-minute running order including a three-part “Blessing” suite, they’re no window dressing either – glitchy repeats, chimes, static, woodblock percussion, even animalistic screeching somehow incorporating infomercial samples and malfunctioning technology to paint lurid vaporwave soundscapes that perhaps satirise the blessing they purport to be when so much else of Milk In The Sun is comparatively straightforward.
Sprout has a real knack for lazy-days slacking, draping his summery creations in odd clothing for fun. An interweaving of guitar and electronics, you can practically see the title-track going off under the warping rays of the sun for example, a track like “Ghost” more of a throwback to the lo-fi bedroom pop of a decade ago, peeling guitar parts shooting out of a swamp of jangles.
Tail-loading the album with its two catchiest numbers, “Dark” in turn throws up a Spector-sized wall of sound, noise and Jesus & Mary Chain-style reverb while “Butterfly” screens off more blissful guitar with fuzzy pedals and further nods to the iconic Lost In Translation soundtrack. If all that sounds like quite a busy listen, you’d be wrong as Sprout breathes space and charm into all that touches, Milk In The Sun an enigmatic but engaging experience.
Best track: “Dark”
~Milk In The Sun is released January 28th 2022 via Moon Glyph.~