Vancouver duo City of Glass release their new EP, Monogyny.
It makes sense that the guys behind indie rock band City of Glass are both visual artists. One half of the group, David Phu, is an award-winning fashion photographer; the other, Michael Champion, an accomplished film composer. The artistic creativity of Phu and Champion’s day jobs inevitably translate seamlessly into their music, particularly on their new EP, Monogyny, which plays like an aural thinkpiece — wonderfully abstract, layered with ideas, and filled with pitch-perfect notes from root to tip.
In the follow-up to last year’s debut full-length, Phu and Champion are explorers of a landscape of angular rhythms and sonic details. The arrangements are never repetitive, instead favouring well-crafted instrumental intricacies that each contribute their own chapter to the four-track opus.
While interpretation is indeed subjective, Monogyny seems to examine the impermanent nature of the human experience. Champion’s smooth voice ruminates over the potential indefiniteness of death through the primal percussion of “Geographers,” while life’s cyclical nature of change is reflected in the shimmering, moody synths of both “The Moon and the Tide” and “Titan.” A look at the dynamics of power and structure barrel through blurry fuzz and pulsating electronica on Monogyny‘s title track; a dramatic conclusion to a masterpiece of introspective moments balanced by bursts of bright melodies.
Featured Image: Christoph Prevost
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