Turn The People
MGM
Turn The People, the debut by Sydney-siders Monks of Mellonwah, bursts from the gates with Tear Your Hate Apart a glitchy, grumpy dance earworm that you’ll be humming along with by the second chorus. It’s the best track and also the least obviously in another band’s debt. This is not a coincidence.
In the promotional material that accompanies the release, MOM cites influences as diverse as Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Led Zeppelin, Muse and Incubus. They’re all there – an Anthony Kiedis vocal tic on Vanity, the classically influenced guitar histrionics of Downfall, the Kashmir punch of the strings on Sailing Stones and Escaping Alcatraz – but completely separate and pat; nothing is meaningfully integrated, leaving each of these loving nods feeling clumsily stapled on.
The record is redolent of radio friendly rock from the turn of the century. Hyper slick, largely mid-tempo, and with is a permanent frosting of angst covering lead singer Vikram Kaushik’s every utterance. This, plus the oversized shadow of their influences, leaves Turn The People feeling like the impeccably recorded demo by a very good high school band.
CHARLIE LEWIS
