Thursday, March 09, 2006

Monday


Been crazy busy so haven't posted in a bit, but wanted to get back in by adding some thoughts on the goddess Monday Michiru's Routes. The only hiccup in Monday's otherwise sublime career was 2002's Episodes in Color. Any misdirection there was absolutely rectified on '04's miraculous Moods. The new disc most definitely sustains that momentum, with moments of awe-inspiring pure jazz Technicolor radiance. Things start off slow, with the odd 2-step-inflected "Right Time," and several gentle cuts, but by track 9 – the mighty jazz thunder of "Don't" – she's settled into a flawlessly lustrous groove, that takes off into absolutely fucking ecstatic speed-jazz-dance orbit on the staggering "Yellow Light" (already set to be among the most incendiary dancefloor killers of '06). "I'm Still Here" reverts back to the r+b/sing-song melody of her Optimista-era, but that can be a lovely thing. The plaintive faux-Latin "I Couldn't See" continues in Optimista mode, to beautiful effect. But it's the sitar-dusted, epically deep-percussion-anchored "New Way" that sends the album out in a stunning cascade of psychotropic jewel/densely saturated sunburst fervor. Granted, there is one more track, and it's nearly as lovely: the broken-beat, gently syncopated "Sketches of Myself." All that said, I respect Monday's ArtistShare/purely indie status, but for myself it was much easier (albeit costly) to just wait for the Jap-only Geneon release (with a lovely package once again). Now all I can say to the girl herself is PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE travel further west than Chicago already!!!!!

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