Sunday, November 23, 2008

Mono Double Feature

WARNING: THIS MUSIC IS NOT FOR THE IMPATIENT
IF THAT DESCRIBES YOU, PLEASE GO HERE
At the moment, all I really feel like listening to is this band. Their insanely dense and vast song structures perfectly compliment the cold and blustery turn the weather has taken. Every sprawling song seems to tell a story in the fashion of some kind of wise elder. They start out very calming and barely grab your attention but once it gets to the real gist, you're sucked in and you feel compelled to find out what happens next. Then it hits you. Usually it's a blast of immense, eardrum shattering guitar squeals and cymbal crashes that signify the crescendo but its not always so obvious. Sometimes the buildup lasts most of the song, leaving you breathless and brain dead when the piece reaches the climax. I'm posting two albums, their earliest LP and their latest, because their style has grown and matured so much but still retained the enthusiasm and obscurity of their infancy. The first album is a lot heavier and dare I say, straightforward, while their latest effort is a more fantastical tale involving more intricate and elaborate orchestration (think Godspeed You! Black Emperoresque type stuff: strings, timpani, etc) that just makes it even more epic than before. I hope you will take the time to listen to these mountainous pieces of music and really immerse yourself in the experience.

Here's the song "The Kidnapper Bell" off their first album:




  1. "Karelia (Opus 2)" – 12:30
  2. "The Kidnapper Bell" – 10:00
  3. "Jackie Says" – 7:31
  4. "Op Beach" – 5:48
  5. "Holy" – 1:40
  6. "Error #9" – 12:30
  7. "L'America" – 4:37
  8. "Human Highway" – 9:05


  1. "The Flames Beyond the Cold Mountain" – 13:29
  2. "A Heart Has Asked for the Pleasure" – 3:43
  3. "Yearning" – 15:38
  4. "Are You There?" – 10:25
  5. "The Remains of the Day" – 3:41
  6. "Moonlight" – 13:04

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