Grex—Monster Music

Review by Luis A. Apolaya

Take the monster from Shelley’s Frankenstein, assume he is very much musically talented, and imagine him finding fellow monsters to make music reflecting their troubled and misunderstood characters—that’s what the fifth release from the Bay Area duo Grex sounds like. It’s playfully eerie, sometimes jazzy, sometimes tumultuous like prog-rock, and always fun to listen to. Recommended: you can’t go wrong with any track. RIYL Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew, King Crimson, the Mars Volta, the Velvet Underground.

**1. (3:42) Instrumental, starts with surf rock cadence and weird guitar distortion, halfway shifts into a burst of restless and anxious improvised instrumentation, then into a slowed-down version of the beginning melody.
**2. (5:38) Starts with a jazzy tempo and melody for first minute, then into a very slow and subtle section with smooth guitar and really good soft vocals.
**3. (4:15) Anxious, very distorted guitar play in the middle, somewhat ominous vocals
*4. (2:43) Mid tempo, starts simple and tame, briefly progresses into more jazzy section, lots of small rests.
*5. (2:31) Slow-mid tempo, heartbroken guitar and vocals, tearjerker.
**6. (4:05) Upbeat, sudden start with restless guitar and drums and organ, maintains prog energy throughout, guitars especially resonant and persistent in this track.
**7. (4:29) Excited organ solo to start, maintains a secretive, obscure melody with breaks into more prog-rock territory, eerie vocals.
**8. (7:48) The jazziest track of the album, vivid piano accompanies the noisy guitar and dexterous drums.
**9. (2:24) Mid-tempo, piano, smooth guitar worthy of romantic scenes, and brush drums throughout, brief breaks of peppy piano.
**10. (5:11) Multifaceted, just when you think you’re starting to hear a melody all instruments shift into something different or lose their mind completely, starts and ends with bluesy piano.
*11. (2:30) Instrumental, sounds like the Velvet Underground covering a children’s song.