The relatively obscure, but renowned Latvian instrumental drone/psychedelic rock band Mona De Bo came out with a new album in the end of last year. What makes Mona De Bo interesting is that they essentially follow the same slow droneish path as Earth, and there aren't really many bands that go about the droneish psych path as well as these Latvians. Prior to this release, these Latvian droners had not released anything new for a few years now. This album however was worth the wait, and doesn't stray from their earlier path that much, albeit perhaps being more experimental, and manages to produce some slow doom and drone influenced psychedelia of consistent quality.
The album is good from start to finish, and mixes some slow evoloving drone or droneish psychedelia with some heavier drone doom and slow stoner heavyness. The first track titled Nekas ventures more in the semi-dreamish psychedelic drone realm, whereas the second track Traks ventures in a sort of a half-progressive slow drone path. The third track Nenotiks in turn starts off in a mellow manner, only to ventue to a relatively catchy slow drone doom path in the second half of the song. A really awesome track and perhaps the best on this particular album. The fourth track Ja has a bit more tempo to it, and almost comes across as a slow Ahleuchatistas track in a Latvian mathrock influenced psych key. The fifth and sixth tracks have the same kind of mathrockish drumming coupled with a prog feel to it, but still in a droneish setting, while the last track finishes off in a more ambient way.
All in all the new Mona De Bo album is relatively good, and should be something worthwhile for anyone into drone and droneish psychedelia, or the experimental psych in general. These Latvians are definitely worth checking out, as are their earlier albums.
Some useful links:
Bandcamp: https://monadebo.bandcamp.com/album/sten-b
Discogs: http://www.discogs.com/artist/1493718-Mona-De-Bo
