Monoland

I've neglected to update MML and the Listening Room far too often as of late, but haven't forgotten my shoegaze loving friends who visit frequently. Actually, today's featured band has a sound that is more along the lines of some of my favorite early 90s post-shoegaze artists. Swervedriver and maybe even the earliest Arcwelder material comes to mind and that is not a bad thing at all. This is an excellent (and mostly textbook) example of how a band can take the swirling guitars and dreamy qualities of a past genre that is usually bastardized and do it justice while, at the same time, making it their very own. I'm still trying to figure out how I missed out on this band and their most recent release last year. Monoland is an exceptional indie rock quartet from Berlin, Germany consisting of members Marco Blazejczak (vocals, guitar, samples), Henrik Schiemann (guitar), Matthias Ecker-Erhardt (bass, samples) and Daniel Grinstead (drums, samples). The band's third full length album titled Ben Chantice was released in 2006 and is available for purchase on German based label Supermodern. For more information, pictures and band news, visit the Monoland website. There is also a Monoland MySpace page for you to drop by where you can listen to four more tracks. All of the songs I've heard so far are really good. Finally, here's a YouTube video of the song Pimp which was created by ATAK & Martin Barber and is also a part of the band's latest release...



MP3: Yuriko