- The Toronto rapper, producer and singer delivers an album of infectious club jams infused with a frisky, hedonistic energy.
- Toronto rapper, producer and DJ myst milano. has the range. They've been an essential part of the city's nightlife for years, organizing parties with The RUDE Collective, DJing warehouse raves and performing at countless rap and electronic shows. Though their artistry transcends categorization, it has very clear roots. In a 2021 interview with Glossi Mag, the Canadian polymath described their voracious musical diet—"a lot of underground hip-hop, electronic music, punk, post-rock and spoken word,"—as key to the genre-defying music they create. "Adaptability… [is] super important," they explained. While Shapeshyfter, their 2021 debut, played as a rap album, the production borrowed from techno's greyscale sound design, footwork's jagged rhythms and dub's thunderous bass. The fluttering jungle and four-four throb of "Wax Poetic," Shapeshyfter's exhilarating final cut, was an outlier, suggesting milano. was ready to fully integrate the breadth of their influences.
Beyond the Uncanny Valley, makes good on the promise of "Wax Poetic." milano.'s new album concentrates on dance music, with its beats drifting away from hip-hop and reaching further into various strains of electronic music. The minimalist ballroom bounce of "Thirteen" opens the album with a funk bassline that snakes through quantized kick drums. There's the frantic, high-energy drum & bass shudder of "Pressure" and the triple-time boom of Jersey club tribute "No Sleep," complete with requisite bedspring squeaks and chopped vocal samples. Even when milano. slows the tempo, they don't forfeit groove. "Just One Thing" wraps glowing synth pads around a chill-out room house beat and "NBHD" is a head-nodding slab of ethereal, molasses-drip trap music. The energy is galvanizing—if you're not moving when a track starts, you will be by the time it's done.
Milano. is a skilled MC with a deep understanding of when and how to build rhythmic complexity, and it's these vocals that truly give the record life. They deploy a variety of intricate flows, finding unique pockets in which to add layers of texture to Uncanny Valley's party wreckers. milano. is also a solid writer—the "Flat tummy / Ass chubby" scheme that opens Baltimore workout "I'm On" is an excellent showcase of their skills as a lyricist. Their performance here showcases the album's best moments, coolly zig-zagging through dense and dizzying internal rhyme structures. On "Black Rainbow/Uncanny Valley," milano. displays a brilliant command of assonance, rapping "It's taxing, being a real bitch in a world less classic / BPA and toxic gasses / Noxious to knock out the masses." At times, milano.'s writing feels a little phoned in, like when they shout "wanna just do it like some Nikes" on "Pressure." But these are club jams at their core and milano.'s chief concern is keeping things moving. It's easy to forgive the occasional underwritten bar.
Where Shapeshyfter was introspective, Uncanny Valley crackles with sweaty, hedonistic intensity. milano. channels the uninhibited joy of losing oneself on the dance floor and expertly crafts each song to facilitate that feeling: "Turn up the low end, make that bass distorted," they command on "Ring Ring." It's also an affirming record about freedom that feels intrinsically queer—the freedom to be whomever you want, fuck whomever you want and create whatever you want. In that same Glossi Mag interview, milano. expressed hope that their chameleonic style would help others feel empowered to challenge themselves, and "to maybe inspire someone to grow past, out and away from their limitations." milano. exudes the kind of confidence that comes from centering joy in life. Beyond the Uncanny Valley is an exceptionally fun record that encourages listeners to do the same.
Tracklist01. Thirteen
02. Choose Summer (Gold Teeth and Bamboo)
03. Ring Ring
04. No Sleep
05. Pressure
06. Just One Thing
07. NBHD feat. Casey MQ
08. I'm On
09. Woosh
10. Black Rainbow / Uncanny Valley