Milo’s Planes return this month with ‘Unemployee of the Month’, a suitably raucous and borderline deranged re-entry for these heavyweights of the Bristol DIY scene and the second single ahead of their fourth full-length, Belly, releasing in October.
‘Unemployee of the Month’ opens with a drum fill akin to a high-calibre automatic weapon and alternates between sections of near-lethargy and restlessness – scaffolded with stabby guitars and anchored on a fitful meter.
Lyrically, Milo’s Planes runs a cup along the bars of the corporate cage, tapping into a well of Patrick Bateman-style repressed rage and frustration. They spit bile and ooze at the soullessness of all, and a dense cloud of dread hangs heavy over all.
This unease is weaponised in ways not dissimilar to recent work by LICE, one of Bristol’s other premier thinking-person’s post-hardcore bands. This comparison is as material as it is thematic if you also consider that much like LICE’s intonarumori, Milo’s Planes also declare to have forged their own instrument for the making of Belly – a thoroughly unholy-sounding thing described by the band as a “monstrous, mutated guitar of sorts” that can be heard in the peripheries adding an almost otherworldly coarseness.
With ‘Unemployee of the Month’ and blistering previous single ‘Wreaths’, Milo’s Planes have announced in no uncertain terms that not only are they back but that Belly is to be (even) more abrasive and than previous outings, and that you have until October to prepare.
Words: Ed Hambly // Photo: Simon Holliday
‘Unemployee of the Month’ is the second single to be released ahead of Milo’s Planes’ fourth studio album, ‘Belly‘, out in October 2021. Stream the song via Bandcamp below.