These Monsters - s/t - CDR (2006)

Labels: self released
Review by: Alex Deller

Playing ambient instrumental music in this day and age isn’t the surest way to lure me into the sack, but These Monsters’ lazy drum shuffles and fragile guitar lines are tantamount to one drink too many and come-to-bed eyes, even to this jaded old curmudgeon. The whole thing is expertly pieced together, from faint beginnings right on through to the swirling, cataclysmic thumps of their psychotic, clarinet-threaded climaxes. Though some sort of debt is clearly owed to the likes of Tarentel or G!YBE it’s a far more satisfying experience than such lazy comparisons might lead you to believe, manipulating the dog-eared post-rock template and blurring its edges rather than pillaging wholesale from any one source. The result is, without a doubt, one of the most interesting and engaging instrumental acts I’ve heard from the UK in a long fucking time “” no word of a lie.