Daniel Eboli - Monadas

Hear The Track Here

This Brazilian musician has been registering more and more with me with each release, or so it seems when you re-read the reviews I have done of past material. A bit of a slow start (probably due more to my own personal taste than anything Daniel did) but he's more than made up for that with the last two releases. The Void (December 2009) featured poetry by Jon Bushaway, spoken by Larry Ludwick and scored by Daniel who, it has to be said, is no musical slouch. So, what's not to like? He followed that little gem up with Red Bells (January 2010), a blindingly good track in every respect and it gained Daniel his first Must Have from me. All no big surprise of course, but the real surprise was the genre Red Bells came wrapped up in. Prog rock, and I definitely haven't given out too many high ratings in that genre.

So it's a given then that I would be looking forward to hearing what was thrown at me next...

Monadas, 'the primordial blocks of the universe' according to Daniel, but something else entirely if it's Spanish, but what do I know from Google Translate lol. Daniel, like a lot of artists tries to give you a flavour of the track you are hearing and comments 'A dream, the space like water, floating, I can fly, I can see the beginning, behind, I am the end... ' which - to my mind - pretty much covers the whole spectrum of being. Still, on with the music... As you know, I tend to get a little peevish around anything that smacks (even faintly) of new age, but reserve special venom for one of the genre's mainstay instruments. Am I really the only one who hates that electronica 'plucked' sound that is so prevalent in the genre?

Ryhmes with plucked maybe...

Daniel's Monadas commits both sins with cheery abandon, being both new age in feel and style, and featuring said plunky sound front and centre as the tune's main structural instrument. There again, if you've already encountered Daniel Eboli's special brand of these much despised genres (prog rock AND new age, who else would be so foolish?), you'll also know the quality of work that Daniel delivers far outweighs any mere prejudice people like me come pre-loaded with. The fact is, I like this musician, not because of what he does but because of the WAY he does it. I've always made it plain that I don't really care for material of this sort but - like all music - when done tastefully, it wouldn't matter what the genre was.

Highly Recommended (gulp) New Age