ninehertz

30,000 Monkies are back with more Belgian madness, an album that we already know will be confounding, dangerous and a lot of fun, based on a track record of multiple album across fifteen years. We’ve covered them since their Somewhere Over the Painbow EP from 2013, and have felt a kinship with their oddball noise-rock meets sludge riff effect ever since.

Super Rebound doesn’t disappoint, as expected. The noise-rock with chunky riffs and awkward signatures has something of Palehorse about them, with an ever-lingering oddity that manifests as joyful or menacing depending on their mood. They’ll head down an avenue of awkward math rock, or almost funeral-like doom, before pulling back from the edge, changing tack with a sly wink and an addictive guitar hook. The vocals are often shouts into the wilds.

Even the more (relatively) standard tracks appear as noise-rock with flailing arms and complaining voices. There are interlude tracks nestled within, with titles promising wailing horns and singing sirens, but feel as much like someone has sat on a keyboard.

As ever when trying to describe this great band, any description feels like a disservice, as though I’m painting the picture of a goofy math-rock band doing cynical art-rock. It is so far wide of the mark. There’s so much more to them than is easily described – an electricity between their different states, an excitement in the unknown, a headrush in its moments of pure heaviness.

This is 30,000 Monkies world, ever restless, ever discordant and surprising. Best of all, they create constantly engaging, enlightening riff-laden music that is a joy to behold.