More than being a high-stakes artistic dare, Koala Bar’s maiden Lilystars EP is a commitment to producing “music that moves.”
Folky introspection. Electro-tinged melancholia. Lo-fi soundscapes simmering after a running boil. The disparate elements are sumptuous, the resulting sum even more so. Koala Bar has been quite the intriguing, man-out-of-time standout in the Lilystars roster since their 2024 inclusion, and today they’re springing their first EP unto the world under said Manila indie banner.
Dubbed ‘The Antelope’ – a journey through “sparse melodic arrangements and subtle electronic textures,” an early internal release from the band teased – the EP, more than being a high-stakes artistic dare, is a commitment to producing “music that moves.”
And that’s important to laser-focus on. More than all the word salad that can be whipped up in reverence of the work of the Swedish act, the key idea remans this: it’s music that moves, but it’s also music that stills – it calms, it soothes, it incites you into willed stupor.
We already got a good taste test of what’s in it, starting with the amazing “Lions,” a campfire-ballad-meets-Big-Red-Machine number that merges serious lyricism with playful instrumentation. You can make a case for that – solemnity laced with a certain mischief, if you may – being Koala Bar’s M.O., because their follow-up single “Where the Pitiful Reside” is propped on the same bit of paradox.
Despite being a “masterclass in mood and restraint” (as I wrote on my previous review ), “Pitiful” remains dynamic and inventive, using samples culled from voices and percussive wooden instruments. “A Sea Among Lakes” is the same, but it’s also a testament to the band’s emotional complexity. In the hands of the Swedish quartet, the prism of emotions is as multifarious as, well, life itself.
Rounding up the EP (not counting the tasteful acoustic retelling of “Lions”) is title track “The Antelope,” a soliloquy, hymnal, and confessional rolled into one. Topically, to the band, it’s “a reminder that you can be several things at once; you can be the prey, but you can also be the one leading the herd to safety.”
To pursue a color allegory, the EP is a rich tapestry of grays – vacillating, fading in and out of clarity and obfuscation – rather than a sure-footed compendium of blacks and whites.
Producer and collaborator Leon den Engelsen was, by all accounts, instrumental in all of this, infusing the vigor of reinvention into the already-sublime work of singer-guitarists Axel Ploman and Jonatan Duregård; bassist-keyboardist Petter Göransson; and drummer-keyboardist Olof Yassin. The result is an achingly beautiful, often haunting collection of mood pieces.
“Leon’s unpretentiousness, curiosity, and openness in the creation of the various productions has, in many ways, been what shaped the entire EP,” the band said, adding that they came into the project hellbent on a creative pivot, and that the producer was the perfect person to help them carry that out. “Almost instantly, we felt connected to [him] and trusted him 100% behind the levers!” they said.
I’ve been looking forward to this EP for a while now. Stream it and tell me I didn’t needlessly expend my energy, because I’m positive I didn’t.