This we know: Monde UFO’s third album Flamingo Tower was haunting and evocative – like broadcast transmissions from late-night TV in a parallel universe, where a synthetic orchestra plays baroque pop, a guitar is set to auto-destruct, and Ray Monde’s hushed vocals whisper a bracing narrative.
Marking the end of a busy year for the band, ‘The Tower’ is being revisited for the absurdly titled Flamingo Tower, Nobody Cares EP, out on Fire on 21st November.
A B-movie sequel to the original platter, the EP spirals further into parallel town, beginning and ending with two takes on ‘Nobody Cares,’ a leftfield piece of Morricone-pop grandeur, punctuated by strings, sound effects, and plenty of tongue-biting drama.
Elsewhere, ‘Low Hill’ offers a more mellow worldview — vintage ’80s indie pop with phrasing that’s almost Northern English in its tone. It’s a stark contrast to ‘Unicorn Tattoo (Samba 10),’ which features Brooklyn rapper and multimedia artist Tone Tank intoning over Monde’s tale of sneaker hand-me-downs: “Samba 9,” an NYC snapshot complete with tattoos and tension.
“LA’s Monde UFO feel stranger, darker, and heavier than ever before – a damning and ghostly document of erosion, malaise, and decay.” Aquarium Drunkard
Those three tracks are augmented by four additional collage-style interludes — sketchy visions that combine into a heady 24-minute opus of channel-hopping madness: operatic salvos interrupted, ‘70s film dialogue cutting through, a rattling drum machine, and the vague anxiety of someone pacing off-screen.
“A couple of the tracks I consider to be waiting rooms — just working in the studio, throwing ideas at the wall. Sometimes a song seems like total shit, but when you go back later, there’s life after all.”
All in all, it’s a trip… another trip to Flamingo Tower, a Lynchian outpost filled with mystery and melodies to wrangle your afterthoughts.
Following their recent US dates with Allah-Las, Monde UFO embark on a European headline tour in December.
“An intoxicating blend of free-jazz, lo-fi psych, and beginner’s mind experimentalism” Shindig
“Monde UFO wander through a humid mist of exotic samba shuffles, shamanic whispers, and reverberating laser beam synthesizers.” New Commute
US
31 Oct: Orange County Fairgrounds, Costa Mesa, CA
EU
02 Dec: Supersonic, Paris, France
04 Dec: Botanique, Brussels, Belgium
05 Dec: Kinnett, Kusel, Germany
06 Dec: Terminus, Saarbrucken, Germany
07 Dec: Hafenklang, Hamburg, Germany
09 Dec: Cafe Galao, Stuttgart, Germany
11 Dec: Arci Vie Nuove, Firenze, Italy
13 Dec: Arci Bellezza, Milano, Italy
14 Dec: Session 603, Vevey, Switzerland
