REVIEW: Sainthood Reps – “Monoculture”

Sainthood Reps / Monoculture / Tooth & Nail

If you’ve ever read Heaven & Hell or quickly screened Kurt Cobain’s journals you’ll know that grunge derives from basic emotions that are often boarded up. These feelings aren’t entirely complicated or intended to be detrimental, they’re just channeled better through distortion and angst. Injected with the characteristics of the pure form of grunge and it’s recent modern take, the debut from Long Island act Sainthood Reps will shake you. The density of tracks and how each one slides into the next with a near flawless tinge flickers with a bit of post-2005 Brand New intensity that’s hard not to salivate for. Monoculture, in its entirety, is stimulating. Why? Its not rehashed garage tones.

“DINGUS” and “Telemarketer” seem skinned from the latter half of In Utero and “Reactor..” recalls cathartic instrumentals that are shades of a certain post-rock group from Austin, but Sainthood Reps’ breed of song structures are entirely their own. “Animal Glue” clicks with lacerating chords that get cinematic in a shoegaze way while “Holiday Makers” does this but swells up at the middle with aggression and Francesco Montesanto’s voice echoing under the racket of Bradley Cordaro’s drum kit. Monoculture’s raw touch may convey Sainthood Reps are all about sacrificing melodies in favor of spastic blowups but the same can’t be said for the band’s taste for crafting words into poems to become hung up on; “Hunter” an atmospheric lighter cut is hard to omit with its sincerity. To the last post-rock strike, the album may not be a precise paradigm of its influences, but the fact it’s pretty damn close is enough to surrender to.

Download: “Holiday Makers”, “Animal Glue”

 

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2 Comments

  • Adrian Garza says:

    Such a great album. I haven’t heard all of it yet, but I’ve casually listened to a good half of it and loved every second. Great review by the way, I couldn’t agree more on the Nirvana, Brand New and post-rock comparisons.

  • rob w. says:

    Awesome review! It is right on. If you have not listened to the album you must, the whole thing is great!

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