Beyond The Blue Sky vinyl

Southern California might be famous for its sunbaked landscapes and sunglasses-clad glitterati, but it's much easier to imagine Monarch beneath an open night sky in locations far removed from the materialism we might associate with the home of Hollywood. Their take on progressive rock is saturated in a cosmic psychedelia that becomes inescapable on this follow up to 2016's debut, "Two Isles". Starting as they mean to go on in terms of raw power, "Hanging By A Thread" opens the scoring with a huge wall of sound, nodding to post and math rock. "Pangea" swoons its way through two-minutes of crooning guitars before heavy, unfiltered crescendos of chords, cymbals and kick drums drop us into a track boasting real depth. "Felo De Se" closes us out on a hallucinatory trip through filtered vocals and staccato rhythms. In short, this is what you should be listening to.