Mono - Formica Blues
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Music CD Cover
Artist: MonoEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1998-02-10
Music Label: Fontana Island
Soundtracks:
- Life in Mono
- Silicone
- Slimcea Girl
- The Outsider
- Disney Town
- The Blind Man
- High Life
- Playboys
- Penguin Freud
- Hello Cleveland!
- Life in Mono (Alice Band Mix)
Free Music Notes for Formica Blues
Free Music Review: Amazing Despite de Mare's Lame Lyrics
Hit: 5 Stars
The lushness and smooth, flowing sounds of this CD are what have kept me coming back to this CD for the past 10 years. Listening to them transports you back to 1965 and Bakelite telephones that never ring when you want a call from your man in his leisure suit and loafers. It's not quirky or chattering music, but it's so svelte and velvety in texture and rhythm that you just sit there and feel a contented sort of melancholy just to hear it.
Then, you hear a screeching banshee hiss her "s"s and whine in a nasal tone about how she can't find love and how her life is all messed up and her man is this and that. In about half the songs, it works, since you sort of close your eyes and imagine a nice 1960's drama set in a Londonian penthouse overlooking the Thames. Visions of avocado green and taupe carpet swirl in your head and you can get into that vibe...but on the other half of the songs with vocals, she's just plain irritating. You want to hear the complexities and little samples firing and there's this high-pitched keening going on. It's really hit-and-miss and de Mare's voice doesn't particularly add to the overall musicianship of the album, other than to render of slightly off-key notes that sort of fit the minor chords in some of the songs. The overall effect of her singing is to basically pigeonhole each song she sings as a wistful and brooding unrequited love/my-life-sucks paean so that there's no way you could play this at a party unless that was the mood you were going for. Hello Cleveland! is mysterious, deep, dark, intriguing and can be played anywhere and at anytime, but the vocals on the other tracks sort of limit the amount of playtime this CD can get outside of 1960's TV drama viewings.
I would say this is a definite buy since the music is good enough (you'll get relief from Siobahn's whining on Hello Cleveland! and if you get the Formica Blues single, a couple of those) to succeed in spite of Siobahn's best effort to blow the membrane out on her microphones and shatter the studio glass.
Mono hasn't been active since I was a college kid, but Marty Virgo's music is so good, I am not sure if he could have done anything afterwards that could even come close to this.
A MUST BUY.
Formica Blues Poster
The British pop duo's hit debut album coupled with a 10track bonus CD featuring mixes of four of the hit singlesfrom it thus far: two apiece of 'Life In Mono' (BananaRepublic Dub & Propellerheads) and 'Silicone' (Les RhythmesDigitales Mix & Mr Scruff Mix)Steeped in placid, retro innocence, the updated sounds of Mono may have you nostalgic for pastel plaid patterns in a tripped-up Brady Bunch groove. Nonetheless, Formica Blues offers plenty of modern tricks that won't leave you hanging on the dance floor reaching for your platform shoes. Oscillating between current trip-hop standards and blameless wanderings, the album presents harpsichord turns, abstract jungle beats, slithering guitar, and spacey whirls. Perhaps the most notable distinction is the dainty female vocals of Siobhan De Maré which suggest influences ranging from St. Etienne to Hooverphonic. On the whole, it's a striking album with enough cross-generational reference to keep the masses cultivated. --Lucas Hilbert
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