Monoral: Turbulence
The rock duo Monoral, consisting of Anis Shimada and Ali Morizumi, have two EPs and two full-length albums under their belts but I first heard their music, as quite a few others no doubt did, through their single Kiri, the song used in the opening theme to Ergo Proxy. This is featured on the second of their LPs, 2007’s Turbulence.
It’s testament to the soaring Kiri (not to mention my impulsive music purchasing habits) that I went ahead and ordered the entire album based on my impressions of that song alone; fortunately the rest of the material on offer is of a consistently high quality. It’s worth noting that all the lyrics are performed in English - a fact explained by Anis and Ali being fluent in both this and Japanese. This means that not only are the songs somewhat more accessible to overseas fans than other similar J-rock bands but it also gives the music a distinctly American flavour. Indeed, the best way I can describe the album’s sound as a whole is ‘grungy’ - there are elements reminiscent of Stateside alt-rock and similarly influenced artists that followed in the intervening years.
