Mono Stereo
On and on / A matter of confusion 7"
MPLS Ltd

Mono Stereo are a Swedish band mining the same sort of aimlessly rambling psych/garage-rock territory as Norwegians Serena-Maneesh, swapping out the latter's wall-of-noise footswitch overkill for a vaguely 60s retro bent. A-side "On and on" is anchored by a looping pseudo-sitar riff that befits the title, run over deeply buried vocals and a simple 2-chord vamp that neither builds nor excites until the mix mercifully fades out sometime before we hit minute five. The flip places the vocals a bit more up front, but it's still more or less the same sort of endless go-nowhere droning, bereft of hooks or dynamics. At least with S-M, the records sound interesting even if the songs do not, this really isn't anything other than tedious.
- Avi Roig