The Monotremes’ EP, Phantasmorganism, is an experimental, playful, and unafraid three-track debut. Want big band? They’ve got that. Lyrics among long instrumentals? Yep. Sudden musical props, like aeroplane zooms and sirens mixed in among the music? Check. How about some dirty, loping contemporary piano? They’ve got that, too. And, like the echidna or platypus, the combination of vastly different ideas, for the most part, works.
The group’s founding member and composer, Adam Cook, is a young Australian pianist well known for his ability to mesh a Bach fugue and a ragged Gershwin masterpiece together with a flick of his fingers, and present it live to an absorbed audience. This new project stands as only another example of his visions for experimental music.
In each track, The Monotremes’ smooth communication between instruments and soloists, and clever, catchy opening bars most clearly stand out: the EP bursts into action with a single note on the piano, hammered in a quick, syncopated repetition, only broken by a short motif on the trumpet.
From here, Preponderous – the first track of the set – becomes a musical epic, metamorphosing into what seems like almost entirely different pieces and songs, from a pipe organ’s theatrical variations on a minor key, to Rastafarian rhythms. It makes sense, then, that the structure of such a long musical landscape is unpredictable, and the feat of meshing together such an array of musical styles, timbres and instruments is worth the listen. At times, clouds of trumpet give way to breaks of breath and simplicity, while in busier moments the drum perfectly shadows the brass instrument’s accents and melodies. The piano often leaps into view with alternating left hand-right hand chords that seem to lurch toward the listener on two heavy-set legs.
Amidst key instrumentals there are visits from synths and vocals, and these two elements similarly characterise the EP’s second work, No York. Also like Preponderous, despite visiting various instrumental styles, No York ends with the same theme it begins with. This is something The Monotremes do exceptionally: developing each completely different musical concept into familiarity, by revisiting it at some point in the same piece.
The most conventional, and perhaps for this reason easily enjoyable piece on the EP is the final song, titled, How Could You. If Cat Empire, conventional jazz, and the Mamas and the Papas had a lovechild and it sang a breakup song, it would be this one. Again, The Monotremes give the listener a promising and cheeky instrumental introduction. From here, the listener is introduced to Adam’s sliding voice, and considerately matched trumpet solos. The whole piece is an aural pleasure to anticipate, except, in this state of trusting, the last minute is disturbed suddenly with a strange, robotic interruption. But this is The Monotremes, it seems: a twist on the conventional, and in this capacity it feels as though this band is testing their boundaries.
Among all of this diversity and musical morphing, the Monotreme’s approach to dynamics seems almost baroque. Where the music is loud, it is fast and multilayered. Where the music quietens, it also slows and thins. It’s difficult to discern if this is deliberate, or whether, among curating outstanding instrumental communication, technical ability, and an experimental sound, dynamics were left to their most natural and logical condition. Another challenge to the group is lyrical development: at times, the messages and sung lines in a song seem abstract – their message or weight is unclear. Rhymes are often oddly simple and less clever than their instrumental counterparts, and the ear aches for a bright, unusual line to convey the same boundary-pushing sentiments that The Monotremes achieve instrumentally.
While the group seem to be searching for their message lyrically, it seems that for now The Monotremes’ most important task is braving the unknown: mashing together the most unlikely of genres in bizarre and convincing ways, much like their egg-laying, mammalian namesake.
To check out The Monotremes’ EP, all you’ve gotta do is visit their Soundcloud account, press play, and work out what you think of this strange beast.