I don’t know much about the Czech Republic music scene. In fact, I know nothing at all about the Czech Republic music scene. It’s alien to me, as is the country itself. Aside from an inhumane amount of love for Pavel Nedved, the nation as a whole means very little emotionally to me. Well, it did until this morning, when a nice little record label slipped an e-mail under my door telling me about Mon Insomnie’s debut single, ‘barbed wires’, taken from his recently completed debut album.
If, like me this morning, that is simply a set of words with no real emotional connection to you, then listen up – Mon Insomnie is actually pretty good. The man behind it all is called Tomas and having first performed on stage aged 14, he’s crammed in sets supporting the likes of Parenthetical Girls, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Micachu, Woods and Castanets in the past 4 years. He says he’s a fan of Ariel Pink and Cat Power, but it’s Perfume Genius the music is going to be compared to. It’s slow and distant, with a kind of considered lo-fi air about it. It’s the kind of sound that you’d like to go swimming in – like a nice big lake that you wouldn’t really mind if you drown in. Those were some words, here’s a stream of his excellent debut single, which will make you feel alive and well, but possibly a bit lonely:
mon insomnie – barbed wires by monsterheart
And here’s some links to songs you can actually download, thanks to last.fm. They’re not quite as good, but they’re still better than pretty much anything I’ve ever done in my life:
Mon Insomnie – Kingdom Hearts (last.fm)
Mon Insomnie – River (last.fm)
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