Album Review: Milwaukee Banks - No Time

What a chic and sleek release this is from a Melbourne electro rap duo.

The wordsmith — Dyl Thomas — and the chief man behind the decks — Edo — return after a swag of EP releases, sweet festival slots and their debut long player, Deep Into The Night, to tease out some of their entrancing, smooth, and soulful sounds for their latest album, No Time. Where some stray into the traps of over embellishment in the electro realm, Milwaukee Banks deftly restrain the energy behind their clipped beats and motifs to gently unravel an album that really gets under the skin.

Having a healthy dose of guest artists in the form of Rromarin (on solid opener No Time To Waste) and Sophiegrophy (Lights Down, in which the chanteuse steals the show with her Beyonce-style vocals) certainly does add to No Time's many charms. But aside from these swank additions, it's just an impressive spread of work that saunters along suave, polished motifs, before veering one way and dipping into some darker territory. Trippin' skips along at a neat pace under Thomas's blunt throwdowns, Caught Up (feat. Ryland Rose) smooths things out with some lounge-esque vibes, and then pulls it back into something barer and bleaker.