Parquet Courts - Monastic Living EP (Fire Was Born Records) 2015
5
Monastic Living is a mysterious animal and a sucker punch of a listen. Far from the skillful, unkempt thrills of its predecessors, it’s difficult to extract coherency or value from these 32 minutes of screeching garbling and feedback heavy tracks. The preamble to the air of defiance that appears to be the EP’s signature, opener “No, No, No!” is one of the few sonically structured moments, while the menacing undertones of “Prison Conversion” and “Vow of Silence” are specks of what the album could have been. However, it is not unlike the band to pursue their endeavors with levity, and they just might have managed to keep us at the edge of our seats out of sheer bafflement with this off-kilter release.