MUNYA – Blue Pine (Luminelle)

The Blue Pine EP is dream pop loaded with Twin Peaks signifiers that floats out of the night without getting weighed down

Blue Pine Mountain is of course one of the peaks of Twin Peaks and is the location of a portal to (arguably) the White Lodge. Add to that the fact that Laura Palmer was found “dead, wrapped in plastic” by Pete Martell outside Blue Pine Lodge, and MUNYA’s EP is loaded with occult portentousness before one can listen to a note. The title track itself leans into the implied imagery by ascending to airy dream pop, which is perfectly in tune with Twin Peaks. Intentionally so, since MUNYA (whose doppelgänger goes by the name of Josie Bovin) is a David Lynch fan who is well aware of the weight of references she is bringing to the (Formica) table.

“Blue Pine” comes on like Chromatics playing the Roadhouse, although eschews ice cool synthesiser shards and moves a little closer to the synth pop fire. MUNYA’s delivery bathes in the warmth of the fireplace without getting too close for comfort, yet she gets in real close to the listener. It is Roadhouse-lite perhaps, but that’s no bad thing.

It proves impossible to shake off the theme and therefore “Benjamin” necessarily becomes a torch song between Benjamin Horne and Catherine Martell. Their double-crossing, foot and food fetishising, sexual power plays are transformed into sultry exchanges, vacillating between French and English. A toxic romance is magically repositioned as the central love story of Twin Peaks. Which leaves “It’s All About You” as somewhat of an outlier: a shiny 1980s pop cut that toys with Eastern mysticism. It’s what gets played on the jukebox after James Hurley has brought lovers’ hearts bleeding out over sleeves with a performance of his hyperreal 1950s ballad “Just You”.

The darkness of Lynch may not be on the surface of the Blue Pine EP, nor is it bubbling underneath. MUNYA avoids the murky sexual depths of her source material and instead taps into those moments where characters have full hearts, despite the lurking dread. She has chosen the path less taken and located the hope and joy of Twin Peaks.

munya.bandcamp.com