The Monochrome Set
Lotus Bridge
Tapete Records
It was all just a dream. Still, it’s worth analyzing deeply, seeing as how it greatly affected The Monochrome Set’s erudite auteur, Bid (aka Ganesh Seshadri), and led to the creation of the impressionistic Lotus Bridge. A feast of fantastical imagery and visionary storytelling populated by uniquely formed characters, the post-punk puppet masters’ latest LP goes on nostalgic reveries, Bid employing various literary devices to reassess and reflect.
Before all that, though, the trippy title track arrives at a crossroads, of sorts. Lifting the otherworldly lid on Lotus Bridge, the giddy opener pictures pirouetting and skating across the ethereal pathway, flitting and frolicking about, as a siren — namely, Alice Healey — beckons with solar-powered backing vocals. Strange faces staring from the other side aren’t as welcoming, but the temptation to waltz into an uncertain tomorrow and leave an unraveling present is hard to resist. Coming on the heels of Bid’s book, Strange Young Alien, chock full of his specially chosen lyrics, it suggests he’s not interested in reining in his active imagination or playful wit. The rest of the album is further evidence.
Such artful wordplay, delivered through various conceptual contrivances, requires a full, free-flowing, melodic musical backdrop, as The Monochrome Set carries winding, jazzy keyboard glow and acoustic guitar strumming — some of it fine and delicate, some of it more vigorous — from one scene to the next, tying them neatly together. On the lighter side, swaying rhythmically, “Polaris Aa” is, nevertheless, an infectious and spirited romp, punctuated with an exclamation point by a full-throated chorus. Stretched wider and more robust, “Athanatoi” is a sweeping, cinematic adventure, charging forward in a full gallop with percussive, insistent riffing.
Difficult to categorize, veering away from what’s expected musically of The Monochrome Set, Lotus Bridge wanders into the psych-folk head space of The Third Mind, a watery, slightly off-kilter “The Abomination of Hubert” gently trespassing on that all-star collective’s property to go night swimming in a dark, rippling pool under the stars and under the hallucinatory influence. “Map of the Night Sky” is similarly cast, both engaged in the moody elegance of The Tindersticks and American Music Club, much like the romantic “Diaphanous,” which easily transitions from a softly jabbing, stop-start shuffle into expansive, beautifully sculpted yearning.
Waking up is hard to do.
