Pickle Darling – Laundromat (Father/ Daughter)

There’s a sparkling magic in Pickle Darling songs. The project of Ōtautahi songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Lukas Mayo, this latest collection comprises wry reflections on everyday encounters and experiences.

Pickle Darling’s songs are memorable for their brevity (nine of the twelve tracks are under two minutes). Musical haiku maybe.  There’s no indulgence: simply lyrical reflections layered onto precise and lively plucked strings and keys. Recorded at home in an endearingly lo-fi style.

The gorgeous Early Geometry has the lilt and jingle that might accompany a merry-go-round of childhood memories. But more nuanced. With that 1.5 minute opener, we are offered an overture to a song cycle of delicate instrumentation and zen-like reflections on the ordinary.  Love letters to the vibrancy of life itself.

It’s hard to hear resonance to others, such is the distinctiveness of Lukas’ art, but at times songs are suggestive of Sufjan Stevens.  In the voice-over on Kinds of Love, we hear “I don’t say a single profound thing. Sorry”. Irony perhaps, because in placing a musical magnifying glass on the ordinary, Pickle Darling illuminates what might otherwise be overlooked.

Titles like Computer Repair, Scared and the titular Laundromat speak to significances in everyday life with sparse and rhythmic repetitions suggesting routines too easily overlooked for their inherent art and beauty.

As well as brevity, Pickle Darling songs are a characterised by sudden endings. No wasted outros or choruses. Just a sparkling little windows into the world of an artist taking the time to feel the depth and breadth of the ordinary. And making magic along the way. Even at the laundromat.

Robin Kearns

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