Album Review by EDF
A lot can happen between albums and Mondo learnt it the hard way. Following up their debut album was not going to be a problem, what people expected of Mondo was. Mondo left their record company and pursued their ideas full time of building their own recording studio. This southeast London four piece set up some rules for the recording of the second album, there were to be no rules. Mondo were to throw in every kind perceivable sound, including the kitchen sink if it sounded good.
BEFORE THE FALL lyrics have expanded from the debut album’s “them or us” subject matter to now include personal and inter-band politics. The opening instrumental track, SLOWSTAR is set against a stark landscape that engulf you with repetitive slow riffs that just cries out in pain. The mid-tempo riff heavy AGAINST THE NUMBERS is an epic like track that threatens to take Indie Rock to a new level. The cleverly titled AVOID THE VOID slows the pace to a slow crawl where fighting personal demons can “turn this into our own high”. SPARE PARTS asks what does it take to be like everyone else. For the third song in a row, the pace remains slow and what else would you expect from THIS IS ALL WRONG, a song about a break-up.
An atmospheric wind greets ANY TIME NOW and builds up to a frenzied wall of noise that leads to the track to end as it started. Even though the pace slows down for LAS LUCES, this is one of the more commercial tracks where Mondo seems to have brought together all the right elements. They continue this with SOMETHING ELSE, a rock numbers of sorts, Mondo style. The rest of the album slows down again but these last few tracks are more atmospheric then what had gone before.
The beginning and end of some of the songs are stretched out to create atmosphere but gives the album an uneven feel to it. The fact that half of the album is like this means two things, that Mondo are being creative and experimental while other commercial acts just churn out predictable nonsense and that they should tighten up on some of their experimental tracks to make them leaner and meaner.
