It was in 2021 that Sydney, Australia-based folk rock band VGmates first graced our pages through their album All Anew and we’ve not heard much from them since. That’s now all thankfully changed through their latest release.

By Graeme Smith

All Anew was one of those albums I’ve heard through this blog that I would describe as truly original. Drawing on Aboriginal and Slavic sounds, they mixed traditional and modern in a way I’ve not heard elsewhere.

Their new EP Черным по белому (translated to English as In Black and White) very much picks up where All Anew left off in that regard. It brings in Irish flute alongside traditional instruments like the duduk and shakuhachi as it reflects on three years of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. As the band put it, it’s a time where “the world lost its shades of gray, leaving only black and white.”

There’s a darkness to EP opener Black and White World that immediately sets the scene of what is to come. Expressive vocals deliver a story which has a clear emotion and point of view regardless of language while an edgy instrumental mixes folk, the cinematic and the industrial.

The satirical Pet the Cat calls out those who turn a blind eye to atrocities while Irreversible provides a moment of mourning. Darkness is strikingly haunting. Time is No More is a philosophical slow-burner. We Remain closes the EP in hopeful and defiant style through a textured, delicate highlight.

Through their new EP, VGmates continue to prove their uniqueness while also saying something incredibly important about the state of the world. It’s a triumph.

In Black and White is out now and you can give it a listen below.