Review Summary: Laid back and intense in equal measure, it doesn't matter that there are no traditional guitars or drums, this is a modern progressive rock album worth listening to.
Having never written an album review before, I was inspired to start when I searched Sputnik for Necromonkey's electronic debut Show Me Where It Hertz and found no reviews. I thought I would fill the void with a few words for others who might be curious about the album. I won't be doing a track by track, however I don't think the page should be blank on such an interesting record.
Necromonkey are a band of progressive genre-chameleons experimenting in Stockholm. If you listen to Hertz before you have heard any of their back catalogue, like I did, when you play through their previous offering A Glimpse of Possible Endings you can expect a toned down version of the synths and drum machines with added post-rock elements, in terms of atmosphere building, in the vein of Explosions in the Sky or Russian Circles. They do this while still being definitively original and definitively prog, with enough tempo changes to allow foot tapping, head-banging AND spacing out.
I feel like this is where the review should say Show Me Where It Hertz is an entirely different beast, but it isn't really, it is a more concentrated one in a single direction. Their back-catalogue showcases a band with their fingers in many pies, Hertz is Necromonkey dedicating themselves to one, eletro-prog pie, and going all the way with it. Their previous work is comprised of so many varied elements, picking one and working it fully in that direction shouldn't be the talking point of the album, as it seems to be on some sites I visited.
In comparison, I listened to Mogwai's Atomic the morning before I listened to Show Me Where It Hertz for the first time. Granted that Atomic is a soundtrack, it is the perfect showcase of Mogwai's ability to seamlessly move from synths, keyboards and electronic beats to distorted guitars, metal frame drum kits and all sorts of fuzzed up soundscapes in-between. With only a small back catalogue to judge them on, it is clear that Necromonkey are a band capable of doing the same. Reminding me of a quote,
"I'm an artist, and if you give me a tuba, I'll bring you something out of it." - John Lennon, possibly.
The label of 'experimental synth album' doesn't really apply if you ask me. A Sphere in the Heart of Silence by John Fruciante and Josh Klinghoffer can be called an experimental synth album. Show Me Where It Hertz doesn't sound like a band experimenting and, even at 6 tracks long, it certainly doesn't feel like an E.P. It feels like an album. The track lengh stretches these six songs out to over 45 minutes and at no point does the Necromonkey duo, Mattias Olsson and David Lundberg, seem like they don't know what direction they are taking the song. The tacks are well crafted, progressing forward with accuracy and intent, not like the more obvious synth jam sessions on albums like A Sphere in the Heart of Silence.
Laid back and intense in equal measure, the album's lack of hard rock instruments hasn't affected Necromonkey's ability to be a prog rock band. It doesn't matter that there are no traditional guitars and drums, this is a modern progressive rock album worth listening to. Which reminds me of one more quote,
"Don't matter which way we're facing, so long as we're rolling forward" - Amplifier, 'Panzer'.
