aaamusic | On 29, Nov 2010

‘Double Vision’ is the début album from Bristol four piece ‘Munch Munch‘, a dream like state of confusion focused to create something truly unique and almost surreal, with a hybrid sound with merges the foundations of minimalism with the current sounds of the psychedelic pop genre.

The opening track ‘It’s Nothing’ is the awakening setting the atmosphere and the mood of what is to be expected, with a fairytale like soft instrumental and eerily melodic male vocals it eases you into ‘Double Vision’ and the unique sound of ‘Munch Munch’. This is followed by the wide awake track ‘Cyclorama’, with its fast tempos, catchy riffs and upbeat vocals it leads you straight into the lucid dream world which is ‘Double Vision’. The album continues in this fashion and by ‘Bold Man of the Sea’ I found myself questioning whether ‘Double Vision’ was portraying something deeper than psycadellic sweetness it appears to be on the surface. The seemingly never ending repetition of the fairytale like instrumentals, eerie vocals and fast tempos become more and more unnerving conveying that perhaps ‘Double Vision’ is in fact a sugar-coated nightmare, revealing the hidden truth within all dreams.

The sixth track ‘Car Wash in the Street’ absent of any noticeable angelic qualities is a carefully constructed piece of musical madness, providing a perfect example for the hybrid sound of minimalist psych pop and anti-Utopian reality; ‘Double Vision’.

Each track throughout the album has an underlying power pop foundation with becomes more and more evident as the album progresses and the tempo speed increases, showing the band’s capability to harness its trademark unpredictability into structured and undeniably unique music, which is conveyed in the second to last track ‘Wolfman’s Wife’, which not only highlight the band’s unique selling point but also there versatility. The final track ‘River Gleams’, shows a more structured side of ‘Munch Munch’, fully awake with a more sober sound it brings the album to a neat closing point, but allows room for a follow up in the future.

Author: Khadija Pandor