One of the more buzzed about bands from the latter half of 2007 was Yeasayer, whose reverence to such Brian Eno produced works Remain In Light from the Talking Heads as well as Eno’s own My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts sounds like a win-win to this writer. However, the reality was that, besides the excellent single “2080,” Yeasayer’s debut All Hours Cymbal didn’t leave much of an impression on me. And while I did manage to warm up a little bit to the band after their performance from earlier this summer at the Pitchfork Music Festival, I still felt an overall sense that I was watching Rick Astley front the Talking Heads.Monogold, like Yeasayer, also hail from Brooklyn, NY which might make a bit of sense as they seem to have taken a cue from Yeasayer’s “2080” and ran with it. Their new EP, We Animals, is one of the more pleasant surprises I’ve received in my inbox from any band for quite some time. With lots of crisp instrumentation that seems to float along while backed by a slight funk sound, the music almost lulls one into a dreamlike trance or sway. More often that not, music such as this can fall into the trap of becoming unfocused but Monogold manage to keep their eye on the finish line until the conclusion of each and every song. And while I wouldn’t normally go for falsetto vocal-stylings, the effect only adds to the atmospheric like state the band conjure; it’s the type of music that appeals to my dreampop sensibilities (i.e., Cocteau Twins) without actually being dreampop. Overall, We Animals is a wonderful EP that actually manages to keep me grasping for what it actually sounds like. RECOMMENDED.
Check out the band’s website here where We Animals will hopefully by available from sometime in September. Look for the band to hopefully perform live sometime this autumn.
Monogold – “Traps/Offerings” (mp3)
(from the self-released EP, We Animals, 2009)
