Sputnik Monroe - Goldin Classics Review

Goldin Classics Review Site

Friday, November 21, 2008
We're Doomed, And It Feels So Good...
Hailing from Los Angeles, CA, Sputnik Monroe are an excellent up-and-coming band that you need to know! This five piece experimental rock unit has been compared to The Mars Volta, Radiohead, and Pink Floyd, and on their most recent EP "We're Doomed" The Great Depression Celebration Part I" it is clear as to why. Their debut full length "Wake the Sleeping Giant" was a bombastic funk fused hard rock album in the vein of Mars Volta. Since then however, the band has grown by leaps and bounds into their own sound that can be heard on "We're Doomed."



Why is it called "We're Doomed"? Well, here's the explanation from the bands website...

"After touring the US in two different vans, three transmissions, several blown tires, through a few hail storms and heat waves with no AC, adding a keyboard player, and ruining their credit scores to play music... Sputnik Monroe swept up the scattered pieces of their lives to make "We're Doomed". It's a 30 minute EP of a two part LP called "The Great Depression Celebration". Through the recording of part one, the band has been hit with streaks of bad luck. Josh Latham(engineer) lost his appendix, and later was diagnosed with a severe intestine disease landing him in bed for weeks at a time. He had to move to Boston to get family health care, leaving most of the mixing to be done over the phone and on the internet. Add a few common colds, broken gear, moving recording spots to five different locations, brushes with the law...and you have "We're Doomed", part one of The Great Depression Celebration."

Here is my track by track review of the highly conceptual EP...

The album begins with the beautifully atmospheric drift of "The Chamberlin." The ominous keys, heavenly choir-esque haze mix with intense jazz like drumming to create the perfect opening to the story. Nearing the songs half way point the intensity takes off with angular guitar lines before scaling back to the keyboards' calm, allowing the song to end just as it began. "Portamento / Nicola, I Miss the Barn" is the next track, an instrumental that serves as a two part suite. While serving one complete sound for the song, it is split into distinct sections and moods. The first half, Portamento, is an ambient filled insightful melody. The song constantly builds sonically complete with wailing siren like synths. The cinematic aspect of the song grows further intensity until its peak, where it returns to the ambiance.

"Standing in Rank" follows, picking up the tempo and heaviness of the album. The haunting synths, funky bass, progressive drumming and sharp charging guitars create the perfect backdrop for the strong vocal melodies. Reminiscent of Cedric Bixlar Zavala's voice, Kevin Netzley's energetic belts are cut from the same cloth as the best At The Drive-In songs. A horn section brings a slow depression over the complex odd time signatures of the rhythm section. This all blends to perfection to create a track that is dynamically epic, as it blends into the three part movement, "Ocean / Le Cirque Du Bruit / Time." The track starts off with their constantly impressive drumming, the deep impacting bass line, and reverb soaked guitars. Shifting rhythms with wavering vocal melodies create a sound equal parts art and rock. The members of Sputnik Monroe clearly know their instruments better than most, and show an incredible passion, without any of the self righteousness. Similar in many ways to the mighty Dredg, Sputnik clearly enjoy experimentation with countless effects and rhythmic times. Netzley's vocals travel the gamut from subdued Bixler-Zavala like shouts to high pitched trails with Bowie like flourishes. Never straying from the doom and depression theme for too long, all the songs return to the original bleak and dark state they began.

The sprawling and theatrically fueled "Everyone is Looking Elsewhere" closes out the album with a heavy and intense broading quality to the music. Chaotic, triumphant, and beautiful all at the same time, while remaining instrumental. The story is summed up amongst the emotional range and intricacies of their playing. This album could very well be the first half of a masterpiece, and I know that I personally cant wait to hear more from this band. Not only is their music great, but their album art is great too.