Necromonkey -
Show Me Where It Hertz


(CD 2015, 45:41, Roth Händle Recordings RO016)

The tracks:
  1- Entering The Sublevels Of Necroplex(10:54)
  2- Everybody Likes Hornets But Nobody
        Likes Hornet Egg
(4:59)
  3- The Rage Within The Clouds(10:29)
  4- The Electric Rectum Electoral(6:26)
  5- Like Fun You Are(6:54)
  6- The Current Beneath The Squarewave(5:56)



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Necromonkey are Mattias Olsson (ex-Änglagård) and David Lundberg (Gösta Berlings Saga). The additional musician on their latest effort is Kristian Holmgren. Show Me Where It Hertz is their third studio album. First thing that I would like to say is that I really love the title and the pun with 'Hertz'. The album cover is also amazing, I really love the artwork; maybe it's because it reminded me of the pictures I had in my study books when I studied microbiology. I think the artwork would even look better on a big vinyl sleeve. If they have the chance to release this album on vinyl, I'll put the sleeve in a picture frame and hang it on the wall.

I heard some tracks of the album on a radio show called Prog Rock Deep Cuts with Ian Beabout. Ian had the honour to interview Olsson and to play some tracks before the official release. I really loved what I heard, so I couldn't wait to have the original album in my hands. The music on Show Me Where It Hertz differs from the regular music they make. There's a card in the album sleeve that tells the story about the making of this album. I'm not going to tell the whole story just to make you curious about the music. What I could say is that the band played in a club and instead of using drums, Fender Rhodes and bass, they used drum machines and synthesizers. Not much later they recorded this album using a variety of different synths and other instruments. The inner sleeve tells which instruments are used during which track. That's a very great feature since not so many bands or artists make a list of the instruments they use while recording a track. Unfortunately my personal knowledge isn't sufficient enough to hear exactly which instruments or equipment have been used during which parts of the track.

The first track Entering The Sublevels Of Necroplex is also the longest on the album. It's a very good piece building up very slowly and fading in a minimal amount of sounds. Later on more sounds and instruments are added, bringing it to an epic peak after about six minutes, and it even gets better and better. Two minutes later the theme changes a bit and turns into an awesome outro of the song. I can understand that some people think that this track is long-winded at some moments, but I think it's great. The following track Everybody Likes Hornets But Nobody Likes Hornet Egg - what a creative title! − is the shortest track on the album although it still lasts five minutes, which means that it isn't short at all. This track is built up slowly and gradually filled up with more sounds and instruments. The outro has its own 'up building' end.

The third song called The Rage Within The Clouds is beautiful, bombastic, and haunting. Just when you think the song is over you get a small additional surprise. It's followed by The Electric Rectum Electoral − please, can someone give those guys a medal for their track names?- a song that starts with different drum machines. It contains peaceful intermediate pieces. Fifth track Like Fun You Are starts very lurid − in a good sense − and haunting and the Mellotron cello makes it more spectral. It gets spookier towards the end, so this would be a great piece for spooky movies. The final track The Current Beneath The Squarewave is a great composition to end the album with. I really like the heavy undertones that start almost halfway through the song.

Show Me Where It Hertz lasts about 46 minutes and as far as I'm concerned that's a very nice length: neither too long, nor too short, but just perfect. This album will get in my album top five of 2015 because I love it! That's why I give it five out of five stars, since this music gives me goosebumps. Too bad that so many great albums have been released this year already, because in my opinion this masterpiece deserves a number 1 position. I'm sure I'll play this album a lot when I have time to listen to music I already own. If you like electronic music, krautrock, psychedelic and a lot of keyboards, synthesizers and drum machines, then this album should really be in your collection. Well, to be honest, all of the albums of Necromonkey should be in your collection!

***** Iris Hidding (edited by Peter Willemsen)

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