Flamingo Tower by Monde UFO

Combining free jazz experimentation with indie rock accessibility, Monde UFO’s unique psychedelic sound on Flamingo Tower introduces the absurd from within a trojan horse of aesthetic familiarity. From clear, amateurish sung vocals to a background of groovy guitars and fluttering organs, many key components of the record’s sound call back to the psych pop tradition, a sound which despite its subversive roots has thoroughly infiltrated polite society. At multiple points throughout the record, however, this safe environment abruptly ends, leaving behind a nebulous swirl of spiky saxophone improvisation, abrasive jazz progressions, and hypnotic krautrock rhythms. Even as the more traditional sound re-emerges to pull us back to safety, a closer inspection of its component parts reveals some daring experiments hiding within this supposedly well-tread territory, with absurd lyrics, noisy flourishes, and clever harmonies that linger just below the surface. This push and pull, this entrancing journey repeatedly into and out of the wilderness, expertly harnesses the psychedelic spirit, tying back to the mundane before flying off once again to prove that the strange hides from us in plain sight.