Sabre Tooth Monk review - Sam Slattery

Sabre Tooth Monk – Sam Slattery Reviews


With a quirkily surreal name, that looks like it was constructed out of some Allen Ginsberg/William Burroughs word experiment, the name Sabre Tooth Monk could make one think that the band befit with such a moniker were going to be creators of some form of skate punk ska thing, with a slight metal edge, and some clever clogs vocalist, with the ego of Kanye West, shouting American inflected lyrics at us, about partying and rubbish lovers.

Thus, it is pleasantly surprising that this band make music that is anything but the above.

Sabre Tooth Monk are a quartet all in their twenties, and include Eliot Mountford-Brock on guitar and vocals, Joshua Baum on guitar and vocals, Juan.J. Galeano on bass and vocals, and Christopher James on drums-and hail from Northwest London.

They make a sublime racket, inspired by a range of artists, and influences, from Queens Of The Stone Age, through to The Smashing Pumpkins, and John Frusciante, but also bare a likeness to bands who were signed to Alan McGee’s (pre Oasis) ‘Creation’; like My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, (early) Primal Scream or The Jesus and Mary Chain-as well as snatches of Sonic Youth, and sundry grunge band descendants.

“Yes, yes..but aside from all the fancy pants name dropping, what do they actually sound like? “- you may well be thinking.

Well, to summarise their sound on recently released EP ‘Bring Me My Squier’ :

Driving, clattering drums, sprinkled occasionally with strange knocks and bangs, giving the impression that, at times,the drummers kit is frequented by a poltergeist, haunt a bed of prodding, rhythmic, buzzing, reverb laden guitars-and flickering, semi butterfly inducing, adrenaline stained basslines, which add that extra smidgen of driving umphah, about which, intermittently, intricate squiggles of harmonic guitar licks deftly wiggle, eel like; all twisted and layered, and interlaced behind chilly, breathy, whispering, three pronged vocals, curtesy of each axe man, that aren’t a million miles away from the desperate, drowning, nihilistic voice of Suicide’s Alan Vega, but devoid of the (faux) fifties proto rock and roll inflections, or ominous hoots, yelps and squeals.

The singing is, on a lot of their songs, (wonderfully) semi indecipherable, adding more a sense of feeling, than a direct ‘literal’ meaning, thus seeming to exist as more of an instrumental device, rather than (exclusively) a communicative mouthpiece.

Don’t approach this unit with the feeling that what you are going to hear is completely leftfield ( if indeed you were thinking that).
Sabre Tooth Monk are, after all, a driven rock band, and I dare say that live they are a force not to be argued with!

If the balance is right, side effects of this could be that their set of songs will stab their touchy freely tendrils deep into the short term memory departments of the hippocampus, causing a short cicuit, which will probably mean that a tune might get stuck in your head, on repeat, for many hours- if not days-if not for an undetermined amount of time.

Dear ( insert name of Agony Aunt/Uncle here) I have a- er- friend who has got ‘Father Akaki’, by Sabre Tooth Monk wedged in their head. What can they do about it?

Answer: Never look a gift horse!

Inexplicably calm, but intense, in it’s abrasiveness, these four horsemen forge the type of music that will slither and writhe, like smoke, about your earlobes; looking for a place to rest in the bone room of your skull, and taking no qualms about nicking your brain as a pillow, while at the same time keeping you in a strange state of phantasmic consciousness; akin, in some ways, to drinking too much Jim Bean, when you have the flu, but in a nice way!

With the Ep ‘Bring Me My Squier’ available for download on ‘Bandcamp’ now (http://sabretoothmonk.bandcamp.com/),one wonders what the future will hold for this band? Epic things, hopefully!

So, give them a listen!

review from Sam Slattery on Music Hunters GB

Gig 12th January!!!

Another chance to witness some great music .....

what better way is there to start the new year ...

all aboard...
http://www.thegoodship.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/goodshipkilburn

Gig Date!!!

EXCITING NEWS.....

12th December 2012!!!

The Dublin Castle
94 Parkway, NW1 7AN London Borough of Camden

BE THERE!!!

£6 on door or £4.50 with flyer

A note from Josh

Hi quick note from Josh, on behalf of the band.

"We had Sunday rehearsal today..

Refining the setlist for the initial gigs..

And we are hard at work on the next songs to add to that in due course..



We would like to say thanks to everyone that has taken the time to listen to our songs,
check out this blog, and also 'liked' us on facebook and followed us on twitter.


Next session for us is wednesday.

Cheers guys."

SoundCloud now on Blogsite

Now you can play tracks instantly from our new Sound Cloud feature at the side of this page!!!

Easy to find, easy to listen!

New Song!!!

It has been hinted that a new song will be released today!!! The first in a series of songs to come from Sabre Tooth Monk

Father Akaki will be added to the album, so get listening folks!!!

Band Profiles

Name: Joshua Baum

Band position: Guitar and Vocals

Age: 22

Other profession: Art and Design Technician

Inspiration: Positive Thinking.

Currently listening to: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pink Floyd, City and Colour, Fat Freddys Drop, Boston, Warpaint.




Name: Elliot Mountford-Brock

Band position: Guitar and Vocals

Age: 22

Other profession: Gardener!

Inspiration: Dave Grohl (reason I picked up a guitar)

Currently listening to: smashing pumpkins, garbage, boston, liz phair, funkadelic, madonna




Name: Juan J Galeano

Band position: Bass Guitar and Vocals

Age: 23

Other profession: Illustrator

Inspiration: Sound and Movement

Currently listening to: Velvet Revolver, A Perfect Circle, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Hurt, Carajo, Mastodon, Deep Purple




Name: Chris James

Band position: Drums

Age: 22

Other profession: Nightclub staff

Inspiration: Hearing something cool and thinking, I want to learn that!

Currently listening to: Sum 41, Anthrax, Iron Maiden, Skindred & Rise Against (Will probably all change in a few weeks!)