I Monster - A Dense Swarm of Ancient Stars Review

For almost a decade now, Sheffield's I Monster have been dining (and lunching, and breakfasting) off their brilliant use of an obscure sample in 2001's "Daydream in Blue" ("Daydream/I fell asleep amid the flowers/For a couple of hours/On a beautiful day" — you've heard it ad nauseam, I'm sure).

After years of pimping their old tracks on soundtracks, TV ads, and even a hit Lupe Fiasco single, Dean Honer and Jarrod Gosling are back with a really strange buffet of new antic confections. The duo seems to have spent the interim holed in the studio with their collection of cult movies and albums (sample titles: "Escape from New Yorkshire," "Lust for a Vampyr," and the Human League–punning "The Circus of Deaf") and their collection of vintage gear (a pop nymphette improbably tells her lover that he turns her on "like a Fun Machine")....full text It's been six years since I Monster (Dean Honer and Jarrod Gosling) dropped an album, and it's given this release an almost Avalanches-style level of anticipation. Much like the Australian mixmasters (whose last album came in 2001), I Monster features an erratic, complicated, but above all else, highly sophisticated sound that - on A Dense Swarm of Ancient Stars - turns out being worth the wait.

Mixing throwback chamber-pop with ultra-modern rock and a whole slew of electronics and vocals, the duo creates an intricately original album that takes multiple listens to grasp. There's a mixture of fun ("Goodbye Sun"), cool seriousness ("Cool Coconuts"), and cheeky inventiveness ("She's Giving Me The I") throughout A Dense Swarm of Ancient Stars that gives the album a warm, yet at times, eye-popping appeal. The range of sound between songs like the dense, electronic "Escape From New Yorkshire" to the tender "Sickly Suite Part 1 How Are You?" is nothing short of astonishing....full text It's what I am dreaming of when I get home and what I love to do...At least that's how the song goes anyway.
White noise





by Furbearinvarmit

Very disappointed by this, their first album was almost brilliant, this one is just noise.
Sucka





by Sara Jo

Lovely, refreshing and haunting. I can't get enough, great new album guys!...full text