Milk Talk's deliciously funky mix of sweet and sour

There’s a sourness lurking underneath the surface of duo Milk Talk’s electro-boogie.

On first listen, the pair present songs that get the body moving, featuring melodies derived from vintage synthesizers and cutesy vocals.

Listen carefully, however, and a sense of tension becomes apparent. The sweet-sounding voice guiding those funky synth workouts sings about rage and revenge, with one particularly affecting chorus repeating a profanity-laden mantra.

“The woman at the center of Milk Talk’s songs is always angry, but I sing in such a delicate and small way that it’s interesting,” says vocalist Yuqi Shinohara, who goes by the moniker Q.i, over a video call from her home in Yokohama.

Featuring a mix of sweetness and funk, Miles Ungar describes Milk Talk's music as "like throwing a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of a chili-baked potato.”

Shinohara and Hyogo Prefecture-based artist Miles Ungar’s Milk Talk project revels in these contrasts while keeping the groove going on its eponymous debut, released last month. Ungar conjures up funk, boogie and general dance-pop delights powered by an array of analog synthesizers, creating tunes that are both wispy and chunky. Over those, Shinohara explores lust, longing — and a healthy rage as she deploys her expletives with glee.

“Like, if Q.i had her cute voice saying, ‘I’m a cute girl, and I want a hot guy, and let’s dance all night, baby,’ the lyrics and the sound are too similar,” Ungar says. “It’s like the musical equivalent of yakisoba bread (a sandwich filled with fried noodles) — carbs on carbs. Both of us like more surprising combinations.”

He emphasizes his point with another food metaphor. “(Milk Talk) is taking something sweet and mixing it with something funky. It’s like throwing a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of a chili-baked potato.”

While that simile might provoke a culinary shudder, the music on “Milk Talk” is pure fun. It arrives at a moment when the duo has begun receiving more attention: French fashion brand and record label Maison Kitsune released the pair’s “Playboy” last year, and Milk Talk remixed songs by Hong Kong pop star Lagchun and collaborated with Tokyo-based electronic artists Vantage and Moe Shop this year.

“Milk Talk is filling a space in music that I crave, which is this banging modern funk and nu-disco groove using retro hardware that I usually get from artists like Breakbot, L'Imperatrice, Chromeo... and they're executing it perfectly with a lot of character,” says the France-born Moe Shop.

Ungar and Shinohara first met in New York in 2015. Ungar was living in his home state of New Jersey and releasing eclectic hip-hop-influenced electro and remixes of Yasutaka Nakata’s Capsule project under the name The Hair Kid. He was part of a then-thriving global community of offbeat electronic producers sharing tracks on SoundCloud.

“I was booked to play a show at Babycastles (an experimental collective and venue in New York), and a band called Love Spread, featuring two New York-based Japanese artists, were playing, too,” he says. “They had a woman with them, and introduced her as ‘a friend and a singer.’ It was Q.i.”

Shinohara, born in Kochi Prefecture but raised in nearby Ehime, moved to New York with the intention of going to art school. “But to be honest I really wanted to do music,” she says. She had played in bands in Japan, but those projects never lasted long. She continued to pursue music anyway, partially driven by an inability to connect with her peers on an artistic level, even over the most basic pop culture trends.

“I loved ‘Akira’ and ‘Ghost In The Shell’ when I was a teenager, but everyone my age had no idea what those (anime) were,” she says. “I had nobody to talk to.”

While her friends gravitated toward mainstream dance music adored by Japan's gyaru (gal) culture, Shinohara found herself fascinated and comforted by the catharsis offered in Sheena Ringo’s music. New York presented Shinohara with the potential to meet more like-minded people.

She and Ungar hit it off during that chance encounter at Babycastles, and he reached out to her two weeks later to help him record songs in his parent’s basement. At one point, Ungar found Shinohara bobbing her head over a beat featuring a slight French touch.

“I remember she had a little yellow legal pad, scribbling down lyrics and trying to record them. ... I thought that was awesome,” Ungar says. The resulting work, “Plastic New York,” appeared as part of a Hair Kid release via prominent Japanese netlabel Maltine Records in 2016, signaling the start of their partnership.

Both made their way to Japan soon after — Shinohara relocated to Hiroshima to work at a university, Ungar moved to Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture — and found time to collaborate. Back in New York, Ungar had started writing a song he envisioned for a deep-voiced R&B singer, “like Luther Vandross.” He asked Shinohara to give it a go. “That’s funny because she has a really high, cute, feminine voice.”

The resulting work featured the pair balancing Japanese and English lyrics over a funk groove. They wrapped the track in Ungar’s home studio and titled it “Pixelated Girl.”

That collaboration crystallized Milk Talk, which officially started in 2019. For Ungar, it was a chance to move away from the eclectic stylistic experiments of The Hair Kid to pursue a more specific sound.

“I’m often so turned off by modern music, where everything is so clear and in your face,” he says. “I like it when there’s a little mud on it.” He points to old reggae records from the likes of Lee “Scratch” Perry as an example.

An album four years in the making, “Milk Talk” carries a slight roughness within its grooves, helped by Ungar’s use of older synthesizer models in crafting its sounds. “Vintage synths get me to where I want to be quicker,” he explains, noting that while he could use contemporary models to reach a desired sound, it would take much longer. “With a Mini Moog or a Roland SH-2, you just turn it on, and it’s just ... magic.” It’s also a reflection of one of his musical heroes, Daft Punk; a poster of the French electronic duo is displayed prominently in Ungar’s studio. “It all just goes back to them,” he adds.

The release of the album — featuring art direction courtesy of Shinohara, who handles the group’s visual side — serves as the cherry on top of a busy year for both. Besides Milk Talk, Ungar also rapped as a guest on Kansai dance-pop duo Pasocom Music Club’s latest album, and was recruited by Hyogo-born producer tofubeats to contribute to the soundtrack of an NHK drama.

Milk Talk’s first album, though, represents a particularly big moment for the pair, with live shows in the Kansai region ahead of them and further inspiration brewing.

“We’re hoping to make music faster, play more live shows. ... It’s a really exciting time, more people are discovering us,” Ungar says. “And now if people find us, they can go deeper because we have this core statement.”

It’s also a chance for both to express themselves most clearly, however they want. “I like how the ‘angry girls’ lyrics just spill out of the songs,” Shinohara says. “Like someone who has bottled up feelings.” Now, a whole new set of ears can hear that, set against a funky melody.