Molchat Doma
Monument
Rare & Collectible Vinyl Records

Sealed 2020 Original Standard Black Vinyl Pressing. Includes Digital Download. "Belarusian Cold Wave Trio Molchat Doma Had A Breakthrough Year In 2020, As Their First Two Albums Were Reissued By Sacred Bones And Their Song "Sudno (Boris Ryzhy)" Became A Surprise Hit Through The Power Of Social Media. They Were Set To Make Their North American Touring Debut When The Covid-19 Pandemic Hit, Forcing Them To Stay In Minsk, Their Hometown, And Finish Working On Their Third Album. Just As Second Album Etazhi Was A Step Up From The Band's Murky Debut S Krysh Nashikh Domov, In Terms Of Both Recording Fidelity And Songwriting, Monument Sounds Much Brighter And More Polished, And Contains Some Of Their Most Hook-filled Songs To Date. It's Also More Overtly Danceable Than Their Earlier Records. Etazhi Flirted With Dark New Wave Funk And Contained A Song About Dancing To Escape One's Troubles, And The Best Tracks On Monument Go Further In This Vein. The Album Opens With "Utonut'," A Dramatic Disco Tune That Almost Sounds Like The Band's Attempt At Making Latin Freestyle, Complete With Orchestra Stabs, Busy Drum Programming, And Glittery Yet Aching Synth Melodies. The Nearly Hi-nrg "Discoteque" Is About Dancing Rapturously And Not Caring About What Happens Later. After A Vibrant Instrumental Bridge With A Trace Of Vocoder, The Track Ascends To A Higher Level During The Final Chorus. A More Spiffed-up Version Of Their 2019 Single "Zvezdy" Appears, Upgrading From Rough, Demo-like Sound Quality To Clearer, Less Reverb-saturated Production, And With A More Emotive Performance By Lead Vocalist Egor Shkutko. The Late-night Sophistication Of "Ne Smeshno" (With Its Bitter, Nearly Howled Chorus) And "Leningradskiy Blues" (Containing The Album's Most Haunting Guitar Lines) Leans A Bit Closer To David Sylvian's Group Japan. As With The Band's Other Albums, Shkutko's Poetic Russian Lyrics Describe Disenchantment And Profound Emptiness, And The Music Brilliantly Illustrates This Despondency In A Spirited, Even Assuring Way." AMG Review By Paul Simpson.