McRoth's Residence

Classical music, or more specifically, classically arranged music, is never thought of in pop music. Whether it’s a Beethoven movement or a Mozart waltz, these pieces of music are not in the same conversation as, say, the latest 2NE1 release or Lady Gaga’s latest flight of fancy. But regardless of the differences inherit in those styles of music and the audiences they cater to, one thing underlines it all: music is entertainment. The imagery and feeling you get as a listener is a universal experience that music lovers can agree upon. Knowing this, I entered this album with trepidation. A completely instrumental, no, orchestral record by a group called Monotoi, and the record’s called ‘Gloomy Cat’…? What in hell is this about?

In short, Monotoi is a group of musicians that create modern, classically composed music. Not to be confused with the classic definition of a band, with a drum set, guitars and something extra on the side; this one has a bare bones orchestra, with a string section, a xylophone, a piano, a woodwind section (which includes a flute), sans a brass section, and the music they’ve created for ‘Gloomy Cat’ is full of imagination and wunderlust, akin to a classic Disney animated movie (not the current CGI movies, but the older, hand-drawn stuff). Like a score to a movie, ‘Gloomy Cat’ is devoid of vocals of any sort. What is here, however, are segments within songs that feel like singing. For example, in “Puzzle of Life”, where you expect a singer to start, a clarinet is heard, then a violin comes in, and the pattern continues. Each instrument brings in a new tone and character to the song that couldn’t be achieved with percussions alone, like lyrics to a song. That’s one of the beauties in ‘Gloomy Cat’, in that it takes classical instruments and creates music in the pop music structure of verse, chorus and bridge.

Where Monotoi gets creative is in the imagery and imagination their music invokes. Song “Lazy Street” is anything but a leisurely stroll. It begins casual enough, with a clarinet/violin/piano interplay, then swells and proceeds to thunderous feelings with a tympani (did I not mention there was a tympani?), and somehow ends relaxed and hopeful, though at a different place than the beginning. The following track, “Delete”, also plays on that interplay, with a piano/violin duet that has both sets battle for which can play the loudest. For childlike expressions, the title track and “Merry Christmas” use high notes and a faster tempo to create a mischievous and joyful atmosphere, respectively. For something more somber, “Cloud Sea” lulls you with long notes and shimmery arrangements that make, in total, a lush and serene lullaby. ‘Gloomy Cat’, as a whole, is a record full of these moments of wonder, something I’m grateful to hear in music, regardless of origin.

For a Korean musical group that I’ve never heard, and I’ll take a guess that neither have you, Monotoi blew me away. A very clear concept throughout the record, individual tracks that surpass anything I’ve heard of in terms of production and arrangement, and then some, and the ability to do all of that without a single lyric, astounds me. I only wish I had discovered it before the “best of…” season last December.

support the artist, buy the music: YesAsia