MONOPHONICS Vinyl & CDs

Review: Fans of Tame Impala listen up, American Psych-Soul band Monophonics have released another 45 from their acclaimed 2022 album 'Sage Motel'. Frontman, and LA native, Kelly Finnigan is the conductor of this train taking the listener through a journey of Bay area psych guitars, 60s soul trumpets and Motown influences sprinkled here and there. No better do all these things collide than on Side A's 'Warpaint', the eighth track on the album and predecessor to Side B's slow-jam 'Crash & Burn'. 'Warpaint' is a brassy quick-stepper of a track, featuring all the hallmarks of the jukebox era as Aquiles MagaNa shreds mid-way through. The tumbling drums and big band trumpets give way to a psychedelic breakdown, before picking things up where they left off in a grandiose crescendo.

Review: For fans of 60s/70s soul, American Psych-Soul band Monophonics have released another 45 from their acclaimed 2022 album 'Sage Motel'. Frontman and LA native, Kelly Finnigan is the conductor of this train taking the listener through a journey of Bay-area psych guitars, 60s soul trumpets and Motown influences sprinkled here and there, printed on a limited swirled 7" disc. Side B's 'Crash & Burn' is the mellow ballad that succeeds Side A's 'Warpaint', originally the ninth track on the ten-track LP. A sombre, wistful track that sees Finnigan's keyboard skills on full display, the psychedelic elements taking over, having an element of St Vincent's groovy 2021 album 'Daddy's Home' in its warbling synths and hippie-esque percussion. You don't know whether you want to cry to it or get high to it, or both.

Review: Here comes a meltingly powerful 7" split single by Monophonics and Kelly Finnigan, a psychedelic soul band and a singer from California respectively. Monophonics' contribution is a classic: 'Love You Better', a catchy, soulful belter concerning a formerly broken relationship, and the sacrifices it takes to pick up the pieces. The flipside, meanwhile, is a newer one from Finnigan; 'The Shape Of My Teardrops', which reckons with grief in the form of a surreal, rimshotting slow jam.