On more than one previous occasion I’ve dedicated a paragraph or two to waxing philosophical about the importance of music in one’s morning routine. Like some demented pitch-man touting the qualities of a riboflavin-enhanced cereal I’ve stressed how the proper early-morning soundtrack can wake you up, make you happy, and give you the all-important energy you need to start your day off right.
Today, dear reader, I will spew forth no such nonsense. This morning I awoke both tired and cranky. I don’t want energy to get through my day. I want to handle my daily commitments and return to the sack as soon as humanly possible in as relaxed and lazy a state as I was when my alarm rang. The last thing I need is the musical equivalent of a balanced breakfast full of “the minerals and vitamins, irons and the niacins.”
My peculiar needs call for something all at once soothing, soporific and stimulating, but in a dreamy, almost otherworldly way that will allow me to return to slumber as if this waking life were the sleep-induced illusion and not the other way around. As a member of the influential UK-based “Post-Rock” band Stereolab singer and multi-instrumentalist Lætitia Sadier has had a hand in creating more than her fair share of strange and beautiful music which fits just such a bill. And her Bordeaux, France-based side-project Monade offers up even more similarly exotic, lounge-flavored, space-age Pop music perfect for any occasion where Folgers crystals would be most unwelcome.
Originally Lætitia’s solo home-recording project, Monade blossomed into a full-fledged four-piece band and released a string of LPs since the 2003 release of their debut Socialisme Ou Barbarie. Their newest disc Monstre Cosmique, in stores February 19th, is exactly the sort of lucid-but-dreamy soundtrack I need on a day like this. Fans of Stereolab’s densely layered Prog-Pop should already know why, as Monade doesn’t stray too far from their complexly orchestrated formula. Beautifully hazy Pop melodies, laid-back Jazz & Soul vibes, vintage synthesizers (do I hear a theremin?), songwriting that pays tribute to the so-un-cool-it’s-cool side of ’60s Pop music (”Regarde” riffs on the signature horn part from Herb Alpert’s “Treasure of the Sierra Madre”), and haunting female vocals sung alternately in French and English are the order of the day… If that order is to “get back in bed” firmly but seductively whispered in one’s ear that is.
Monade “Étoile”
Sadly, I don’t speak French. But I know that Monade, like Stereolab, is fond of referencing serious subjects and socio-political philosophy in it’s lyrics. So for all I know all these spaced-out lullaby’s are in fact calls for armed uprising or meditations on the psychological conditioning imprinted on us by a capitalist society. Even if that’s the case though, it’s alright, because one of the few places not directly effected by the oppressive trappings of society, where our psyches can communicate freely, is our dreams.
In your face Sleepy-Time Tea!
-El Keter
