During my adventures on social media, I see no end of people bemoaning the lack of interesting new music, and equally large numbers of people seeking recommendations because they have no idea where to begin looking for new music beyond whatever the algorithms of their preferred streaming service recommends. Conversely, when the likes of Ed Shearan are making headlines for things other than lawsuits over their derivative songcobbling, they’re poo-pooing the need for reviews. Of course, if you’re a multi-million streaming artist and a household name, you’re not going to give a toss about the opinion of the likes of a small-time writer plugging away on a little independent site, or even that of the mainstream press. But that’s not what we’re here for. If you’re here already, the chances are you don’t need me to tell you that Ed’s latest work is more flimsy toss.
You’re unlikely – at least at the moment – to find Select or Q or The Guardian covering the latest single by someone like Monad, the dream-pop project of Tel-Aviv based artist and producer Eshchar Nachmany, which blends, according to his bio, ‘palpitating electronics, otherworldly echoes and shoegazey guitars into his own brand of multicoloured psychedelia.’
But someone needs to be shouting about it, because it’s great: it’s only two minutes long, but it’s sonically huge – the sound is lo-fi but with a massive wall of shimmering effects-drenched guitar which bury the crunchy drums while the vocals float somewhere in the middle, and it’s light and airy and dreamy and yearning.
|
Monad spins a unique slant on a well-worn template and it works well: there’s a lot to like here.
|
