Monoral's first record, the EP In Stereo, was released in 2001, but for some years Shimada and Morizumi didn't view Monoral as their main jobs: they continued working on TV and were content with the occasional live performance, usually sharing the stage with other bands. Their collaborative instincts pushed them as far as the establishment of their own regular Halloween live rock show, and they also participated in a number of parallel musical projects, including (but not limited to) Bloom Underground, the side band of drummer Eric Zay, and solo efforts of Hyde, the frontman of L'Arc-en-Ciel, whose lyrics for the 666 album Shimada translated into English.
Still, by 2004 the potential of Monoral showed quite distinctly, as the band's second EP, Ammonite, completed with the help of Eric Zay and singer/songwriter Rie Eto, almost topped the Japanese indie charts, stopping at number three and lasting seven months in the Top 50. There was no wasting that success, and the next year Monoral released their debut full-length album, Petrol, and quit the indie world immediately thereafter, signing to Haunted Recs, the label of their old pal Hyde. Only then did they arrive at most artists' typical starting point, releasing their first single, Visions in My Head, half a year after the LP. But what actually caught the attention of the public was the song Kiri, which they provided for the cyberpunk philosophical anime series #Ergo Proxy in 2006 (the other song used in the credits was Paranoid Android by Radiohead). The track was sold digitally by the band itself, but Monoral's label released their second single, Tuesday, and second album, Turbulence, during 2007, a year in which the band also played at the Fuji Rock Festival, Japan's largest music event. ~ Alexey Eremenko, Rovi
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Kiri |
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Thisband Has Not Begun |
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Casbah |