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.
