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Besvær Salat / Fuzz / The Source of All Monsters / Disgust: The Soundtrack
Member: Mondo Bungle

I want to start off by saying that even though i've only listened to these 4 albums and the one I've mentioned in my previous post, this guy has got some serious talent. I'm not saying that because i'm his friend, I would still say the same thing if I were someone random who didn't know him at this forum and I ended up stumbling upon these albums. Seriously, this is some seriously awesome stuff. I started off by listening to Fuzz because honestly...the album art was intriguing, and man was I not disappointed. Coming in at only 3 tracks, you can tell right off the bat and by the song lengths that Mondo isn't going to short us out of anything. The album starts off with a 26 minute track titled "Overboard" and it just gets right into things and continues to be powerful throughout the 26 minutes. Mondo has once again discovered how to keep someone interested in the music without it dragging on too much. When I was listening to this album this morning, I was waiting for my bus, and I suddenly felt the world stop around me and all I could feel was the music. It's definitely a rare occasion for the to happen to me where all I can see, feel, and hear is the music in my ears. When you continue throughout the album, you get another fantastic track titled Begin The Ritual coming in at 21 minutes. Again, i'm speaking from personal experience, don't let the length of the song scare you, Mondo has definitely found a way to make a 21 minute drone filled song sound interesting and fantastic and never once do I get bored. I was very happy with how I ended up liking Fuzz. It's not my favorite of his, but it's definitely up there with being an album that I will listen to for a long time.

Moving on, we have an album by the name of Besvær Salat. This album comes packed with 4 tracks, with all the songs either at the 3 minute mark and the 6 minute mark. Instead of going with the lengthy approach, Mondo instead went with the short and sweet approach, and it works. While we already know from listening to Fuzz that he can fit a lot of interesting sounds into a long track, this album also showcases the fact that if you give him just a few minutes, he can still manage to blow you away with something amazing. Out of the 4 albums that I listened to, I found that this album in particular was my favorite. I think it was a mixture of the short tracks mixed with the ambient / synth sounds that really sold me on it. He does have a tag on this album that's considered "coldwave". I'm not entirely sure what that means, but if he's referring to temperature, I can definitely feel a sense of coldness throughout this album. Not necessarily a bad thing, it's just interesting to take into consideration how an album can make you feel, temperature wise. Every track on this album is great to amazing. All of them seem to be a little different, but all manage to use a synthesizer to it's greatest ability. A remarkable 4 track album that is definitely up there with being one of my favorite albums of the year.

The Source of All Monsters is up next, and I honestly have no idea how to describe this album. At first I found a lot of similarities to the first album I heard of his, titled "We Are Animals, We Eat Meat EP" where he used distortion and noise to it's advantage. Although I really did enjoy that album, this album was much....much better. He uses a variety of sounds and experiments with a lot of different things on this album, but the thing is, it works. It really does work. Some might find it annoying and untalented, but I can hear that it does take some serious brain power to come up with things like this. I don't really know where i'd place this album in terms of ranking the albums, but I don't really want to rank the albums because I already have my favorite, and the rest are still great if not amazing. But, if you're heavily into that drone / ambient type of thing, I'd strongly recommend listening to this album as it does the genre justice. Of course, that's coming from someone who still isn't too familiar with the genre, but I stand by the fact that Mondo has got some serious talent when it comes to this genre. Certainly a great album, and I will be listening to it some more in the near future.

Last but certainly not least, we have Disgust: The Soundtrack. This album, is seriously so beautifully made, that it made me question whether or not I should put Besvær Salat as my favorite, but a few things made that happen. Instead, I made a compromise and I said to myself that if not for Besvær Salat, this one would be my favorite. I don't really know what it is, but i'm just a big fan of that more ambient-ish sound that he seems to have a beautiful grasp on. It's got a lot of my favorite qualities. It's very post-rock-ish, it's quiet, and it's got certain things to it that take a few listens to hear. It comes in at 7 tracks, but none of the tracks are boring or lame. All of them are great, and I certainly don't know which one I'd say is the best, as they all have their own unique qualities which allows the album to shine in the way that it does. If I were to choose a track that stood out, I would definitely go with But If I Go First. It's a very cool and unique track that takes certain sounds that you wouldn't think would work, and Mondo manages to make them work in the best way you could possibly imagine. Again, this and Besvær Salat are definitely competing for my number one favorite album from this guy, but Besvær Salat still takes the trophy on that.

In conclusion, this has been one of the coolest rides of dove into when it comes to discovering a new genre that I had absolutely no knowledge of. Honestly, I had no idea where to start with this type of stuff, but listening to these albums from someone that I know definitely had a positive impact on what I think of the genre as a whole. Mondo has definitely got some unique and special talents up his sleeve, and I still stand by the fact that even if I didn't know him, i'd still think these albums were nothing short of amazing. A lot of these albums are in my list of "favorite albums of the year" and will most likely remain there for years to come. I will also say that I am following / looking forward to more music that this guy releases, as I've grown sort of attached to the albums I've heard already. I'll definitely be giving the rest of the albums that I haven't heard yet a listen and will do a review just as I did here. I hope this comes off as positive as I tried to make it, but if it didn't, well I tried. To wrap things up, give these albums a listen, and let Mondo know how great of a musician he is. He's got some remarkable talent, and it's definitely not going to waste.