Monophonics
Sound of Sinning

I joyfully read about many psychedelic bands from the '60s-'70s, and so I feel compelled to write about a band that has been writing, arranging, and playing in a soul-psychedelic style for about a decade.

They first reached my ears in 2012 with the cover of "Bang Bang – My Baby Shot Me Down" by Sonny Bono, a song I've never particularly loved, but in this version (unlike that horrible one by Carla Bruni) I approached it with a certain curiosity and pleasure until the end of the reinterpretation.

Kelly Finnigan (vocals, organ, and keyboards), Austin Bohlman (drums), Ian McDonald (guitar and backing vocals), Myles O'Mahony (bass and backing vocals), Alex Baky (saxophone, no longer a member of the group), and Ryan Scott (trumpet and backing vocals) have funk roots, and there's plenty of funk in their early albums, but these guys from San Francisco, who don't gift you with flourishes but rather make you pay the listening fee with tracks that have golden and silver whiskers, have taken a bit of Motown and put it into their sound engines for this 2015 album.

In my personal judgment, the most exciting thing about the "Monophonics" is Finnigan's voice. It goes straight to the brain receptors and doesn't come out: scratchy, dirty just enough, precise but not too much, with a remarkable range and vocal power comparable to that of Leon Bridges. Despite all this, he remains undoubtedly a more than valid keyboardist/organist.

The 6/8 of "La la la love me" seems to spectrally come out from the '60s, just like "Falling Apart," a melancholic ballad with echoes, lingering guitar, and an arrangement of strings and horns that gives you goosebumps.

Powerful "Hanging On," with Latin drumming, much closer to soul than psychedelia, exactly the opposite of "Lying Eyes," with Memphis-style guitars and lyrics with the cliché of a deceitful man-woman relationship: "All of the lies won’t give you back / back your time / I’m waiting for the day when you / stop wasting mine."

The song that gives the title to the work "Sound of sinning" fully embodies the '70s spirit with the toy metallophone, the melody's whistle, and the accompaniment of the choirs, all recorded with an absolutely low-fi approach.

My favorite tracks are "Strange Love" (a vaporous guitar and a seductive organ send the listener back in time), "Promises," and "Find my Way Back Home." I consider them three sonic bombs that highlight Finnigan's voice (who is inexplicably white, Caucasian), McDonald's perfectly detuned, vibrated, and "wa-wa" guitars, and the voluptuous and captivating horn arrangements, all driven by Bohlman, who alternates a bebop spirit with snares that smash the 4.

Cinematic mention for "Everyone Got…" which has two basic chords, and they are the same as "Chan Chan" ("Buena Vista Social Club") and could easily be used as a base track for "Westworld" or other films or TV shows of the genre with a hint of western.

Probably a more soul than psychedelic album, I must admit, but in my opinion, it's absolutely worth listening to for a nice revival (which isn't a revival).