Monkey3 – The 5th Sun

1. Icarus
2. Suns
3. Birth Of Venus
4. Pintao
5. Once We Were…
6. Circles
7. The Ship (Bonus Track)
“Switzerland’s are somewhere high above us all, drifting around the universe in a gleaming intercosmic craft woven from strands of space metal and ambient lounge-jazz, beaming back the sounds of what they see. It’s all pretty cool, really. There’s a machine-like quality to ‘s sound; the loping, lazy turns of its rhythm possess precision, like an enormous, eternally meshing internal clockwork; the squealing guitar leads and grinding organs that outgas in vivid curlicues, like coronal mass ejections; and a shimmering halo of reverb that blankets the work in a furious, wincing light, even when it goes dark’like staring at your warped reflection in the glowing hull of something completely alien.”
“And then you’ve got the other side of the equation; almost every song on “” reduces itself to bare components at some stage, before then rebuilding into a stirring post-rock crescendo, all the way to its original pitch and beyond. Some songs do it more than once. On the way, take for stepping stones unusual, amorphous ambiences that owe a debt to Brian Eno, or the slick orbital funk of Air, encrusted with snappy thrusts of Rhodes piano and zero-G clouds of synthesiser. “Circles” and “Suns” are the obvious examples, and both present a compelling blend of atmospheres.”
“Though it’s nearly an hour long, most of the songs on “The 5th” Sun manage to resist the plodding post-rock trap of interminable compositional length. This is something have always been good at; doing a lot with a little. Even the relatively slimline five-minutes-or-fewer tunes like “Birth Of Venus”, “Pintao” and “The Ship” manage to find the momentum to visit some unexpected corners in their short spans. “Icarus” and “Once We Were'” are given more space to stretch, and coincidentally, both find themselves bouyed up by roaring choirs by their ends.”
All That Is Heavy, Noel Oxford
2LP album
Back