Blending delicate acoustic guitar work with ardent rock culminations, Trampoline is the stellar debut EP from Melbourne/Naarm artist MUKI. The four-track release captures the chaotic ups and downs of identity, heartbreak, and mental health through vulnerable arrangements and passionate, layered vocals.
“It’s about the strange joy tied to childhood, and the way a memory can hold both innocence and pain,” MUKI says of the EP. “The title came from a notion I couldn’t shake: ‘have you ever seen anyone sad on a trampoline?'”
Opening track “My Sweet Anxiety” stirs in its heartfelt folk ascent, culminating in a soaring multi-layered vocal entrancement with alt-pop appeal. The dreamy acoustic-forward beginnings are bolstered by artfully effective lyricism, capturing how anxiety can render one confused and searching for answers. “All of my thoughts were shouting in caps on the ground,” the impactful vocals let out, ruminating on how “my mind won’t let me find the things that I want, but reminds me of things I barely need.” The ensuing “Gasoline” is also fantastic, melding trickling guitar work, wordless vocal harmonies, and insightful fire metaphors relating the process of building a fire and airing it out to sustain the embers to an eroding relationship.
Another memorable, insightful piece of songwriting, “Reflections” muses on what-if’s and if reflections would have changed “if I’d had been another man.” Continued themes of soul-searching arise in the “I wish I didn’t feel as lost tonight” lyric, punctuated by a tender guitar solo and ghostly vocal harmonizing. “Morning Music” then concludes the EP, straddling desires of escapism with yearning for connection as a warming, caressing folk sound drives to a blistering rock fervency in the final minute, complete with an exhilarating vocal swell and free-flying guitar solo. Trampoline is an excellent EP from MUKI, succeeding in realms of both lush folk and anthemic rock.
