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Photo – James Evans

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Celebrated Eora/Sydney R&B artist Milan Ring today unveils her balmy new single and video ‘Mangos’. As the temperatures begin to rise, the days start to swelter, the nights grow long and the first Kensington Prides hit the market, it arrives on time as the perfect accoutrement to the upcoming Australian summertime.

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Out now via Astral People Recordings, ‘Mangos’ is Milan Ring’s first new solo music since the release of her acclaimed 2021 debut LP I’m Feeling Hopeful. Landing as the fullest and most distilled expression of her beguiling talents to date, ‘Mangos’ ushers in a playful and inquisitive new era for Milan.

A homage to a summer love affair, ‘Mangos’ crackles with humidity and longing, feelings of desire wrapped around a cherubic, pitch-shifted vocal hook – “I want to see you”. Weightless and oozing hazy giddiness, ‘Mangos’ is an amorous Eden, an idyll away from earthly realities that invites wide-eyed, euphoric immersion. With a mercurial composition recalling the languorous energy of Gabriel Garzón-Montano, the track also represents the first time we hear Milan weave the Guzheng, a Chinese harp, into her songwriting – a musical representation of her Chinese heritage. 

Of the single, Milan shares that “‘Mangos’ started from an instrumental, drumless sample that 18YOMAN and I had created together. Then, when I was away on a little solo summer retreat in Australia, I produced the beat, added in the Guzheng, the guitars and the rest of the song unfolded very quickly.” Shot by Chris Chance, produced by Single Channel Films and edited by Jordan Kirk, the single’s evocative, elliptical video feels like a cut-and-paste collage of the summertime, shot on location in London whilst Milan was touring throughout Europe, in her words, “[carrying] on with that away-from-home feeling”.

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An accomplished musician, producer, engineer and music director, Milan has long been a figurehead in Australia’s R&B renaissance, having collaborated with the likes of Questlove, DRAM, Chance the Rapper’s group The Social Experiment, The Avalanches, Ta-ku, BLESSED, Sampa The Great, B Wise and many more. Fiercely independent, the multi-talented artist continues to create and produce all her work on Gadigal Land in the Inner West of Eora/Sydney.

Released in late 2021, Milan Ring’s long-awaited debut full-length I’m Feeling Hopeful was a transportive and restorative document of her “observations of the world around me and the world within,” spawning singles ‘BS’, ‘Pick Me Up’, ‘Sydney Hue’ and ‘Hide With You’ and boasting collaborations with BARKAA, Jean Deaux, BLESSED and Che Lingo, subsuming flourishes of soul, hip hop, electronica, indie and dub within her forward-thinking R&B. The album was released to immediate and rapturous acclaim, earning Album of the Week honours at both triple j and FBi Radio, alongside further radio support from CADA, RRR, 2SER and more. Critically lauded, praise flowed from national and international press outlets, including The Line of Best Fit (“Moving through different genres as if they’re going out of fashion, Milan Ring’s debut album is an enthralling listen”, 9/10), NME (“A definitive statement”), The Music (“A late contender for album of the year”), COLORS, CLASH, Notion Magazine, Our Culture, The Big Issue and many, many more. It culminated in Milan picking up nominations for Record of the Year and Song of the Year (‘Sydney Hue (feat. BLESSED)’) at the 2022 FBi Radio SMAC Awards alongside nods for Breakthrough Independent Artist of the Year and Best Independent Soul/R&B Album at the 2022 AIR Awards.

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‘Mangos’ by Milan Ring
is out now on Astral People Recordings
Listen: HERE

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Follow MILAN RING
Website – Facebook – Twitter – Instagram

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Photo – James Evans

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AMNPLIFY – DB