Albums of the Year # 72 Monde UFO - Vandalized Statue To Be Replaced by Shrine

 Officially Darren Jones day on here. Another fantastic and fantastically odd record he directed me towards earlier on this year:

Now this is truly far out. One of the weirdest records I've listened to for some time, and I do pride myself on trying to push the boat out if I can with the stuff I recommend on here.

How to describe Monde UFO's Vandalized Statue To Be Replaced by Shrine ? Most immediately it should be mentioned straight away that this is a Californian outfit, which is a relevant detail. This seems to beam direct from either Hollywood itself, or else a space pad, in a similar way to some of Stereolab's fabulous recorded Nineties output, or that wonderful sixties cartoon Hanna Barbera The Jetsons.

To quote Monde UFO's bio, this is 'a resourceful analog of plush 60s pop captured through the modest means of a truly independent musical endeavour.'  Canny prose. There's definitely something of the way the Sixties envisioned the future in films and on TV, this feels like the perfect soundtrack to Fantastic Voyage, that fabulous 1966 movie where a space age submarine is injected into the bloodstream of a living human body which it proceeds to navigate for the rest of the film. Again, something that could only be dreamed up in California.

Vandalized Statue To Be Replaced by Shrine, despite the reference points I've given, (in an attempt to give an idea of what it sounds like), remains defiantly alien first and foremost. There's an acute awareness of other musical genres and culture here. Literature music and film.. This makes it an incredibly enjoyable listen immediately, as you're constantly reminded of myriad cultural reference points as it plays.

Freeform Jazz, Bossa Nova, Short Stories by the likes of Ray Bradbury and John Cheever and Futuristic Utopias and Dystopias also came to my mind at various points . I could go on but it's another of those records that is best listened to and immersed in rather than read about. Many thanks to Darren Jones once more for recommending this record. You're definitely coming to deserve a co -credit here Darren. This, like much else you've recommended, is just terrific.