Mylets: Arizona

Indiana man loops the loop to jaw-dropping effect.

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When you go to a gig, do you check out the support? If the answer’s no, then you should.

You might just discover something mind‑blowing and wonderful, and that’s exactly what happened when Prog pootled along to see And So I Watch You From Afar in London in May. In support was 20-year-old Indiana wunderkind Henry Kohen, aka Mylets. A slight figure planted at the front of the stage with just his guitar, pedalboard and keys/drum machine for company, Kohen gave us a set that was loud, intense and deceptively fluid for a man spinning a dinner set of musical ideas at once. Kohen’s second album, Arizona, is an exuberant collection of experimental songs that pack the electronic punch of Nine Inch Nails’ With Teeth one minute (Trembling Hands) and Sonic Youth’s brimming alt-rock anthems the next (Sharks). In between there’s plenty of meticulous Adrian Belew finger-tappery/power-drill metal (King Sleep). No matter how complex the loop, Kohen’s melodic layering and rhythmic sensitivity can make even the most daunting modular work a hum-along, whereas something confidently stripped back – Homes, for example – is basically Terry Riley reimagined for Gen Z.

Jo Kendall
Jo Kendall

Jo is a journalist, podcaster, event host and music industry lecturer with 23 years in music magazines since joining Kerrang! as office manager in 1999. But before that Jo had 10 years as a London-based gig promoter and DJ, also working in various vintage record shops and for the UK arm of the Sub Pop label as a warehouse and press assistant. Jo's had tea with Robert Fripp, touched Ian Anderson's favourite flute (!), asked Suzi Quatro what one wears under a leather catsuit, and invented several ridiculous editorial ideas such as the regular celebrity cooking column for Prog, Supper's Ready. After being Deputy Editor for Prog for five years and Managing Editor of Classic Rock for three, Jo is now Associate Editor of Prog, where she's been since its inception in 2009, and a regular contributor to Classic Rock. She continues to spread the experimental and psychedelic music-based word amid unsuspecting students at BIMM Institute London, hoping to inspire the next gen of rock, metal, prog and indie creators and appreciators.