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Time to Explore a New Planet...

Monomyth is a 5-piece from The Hague, that gained a lot of popularity after their first two albums, Monomyth (2013) and Further (2014). They play a mixture of Space/Kraut and Stoner Rock that will make you trip far away from the earth.

How is the sound ?

A monomyth is the concept that a hero’s journey follows the same steps in every culture. This is also one of the basics of storytelling, and Monomyth does just that: tell awesome stories via the medium of space/psych/stoner/kraut/[insert a genre here] rock. The first two albums were the search of the famous Wow! signal, 6EQUJ5, and now they arrived there. They don’t necessarily look for the heaviest riff, or the craziest solo, but for the most appropriate sound to incorporate in a piece.

The first track, “Uncharted“, starts very slowly, as if to pick you up from whatever state you were in, and gently taking you to Monomyth levels of consciousness. Now that you’re in the right state of mind, after 10 minutes, the heaviness kicks in, blending nicely with the keyboards.

“Surface Crawler” is more of the stoner/space rock kind, but with a very present keyboard, making it probably one of the best tracks to introduce Monomyth to your friends.

“ET Oasis” continues the exploration, with the synth laying down the foundation for a heavy stoner ending.

I think “LHC” is my favourite track, and it’s brilliantly titled, as it accelerates again and again for 7 minutes, before an explosion of psych particles from the synth and the guitars.

“Moebius Trip” is probably the most traditional Heavy Psych track, and is closer to the sound they had on the first album.

Exo is nothing short of brilliant. Very few instrumental albums can tell stories this way, and I’m very excited to see what they can do live, maybe by adding a video background to it.

Why is this album worth listening ?

If you have listened to the first two albums, this one is the logical progression .

. This is a very carefully composed album, you’ll find something new at every listen. It reminds me of treasures of classical music in that aspect.

In what situation you should listen to this album ?

Listen to it when your mind can wander (by any means tou see fit , even if this review was done without any help from spacey substances) and let the music send you somewhere.

Something particular to note ?

Their last album, Further, was the first to be reviewed on More Fuzz

The drummer, Sander Evers, played in 35007 on “Liquid” and “Phase V”, and also plays in Gomer Pyle. He gave a great interview to Outlaws Of The Sun, go check it out.

I think I need to explain why I put Øresund Space Collective in the “For Fans Of” section: it’s because the overall feeling I had listening to this album is quite close to the one I have when I listen to “High Pilots”, from the “Dead Man in Space” album. Now, bear in mind that the process from the two bands are opposite: ØSC is purely a jam band, while on this album every sound seems precisely constructed.