Zen Monkee channel ’60s blues titans Cream and Canned Heat on new self-titled album
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19.11.2020

Zen Monkee channel ’60s blues titans Cream and Canned Heat on new self-titled album

Words by Tom Parker

The band’s self-titled debut album is out on Friday November 20.

Melbourne blues-rockers Zen Monkee write music from another era. Excavating the fuzzed out sensibilities that ’60s blues-rock titans Cream and Canned Heat first championed, on Friday November 20, the four-piece will deliver their self-titled debut album.

Zen Monkee materialised throughout 2019; the band spent much of this year in a secret studio workshopping the identity of their debut record. The LP spans ten tracks and it won’t all come as a surprise – the band have already lifted the lid on two singles from the album.

The first came in the form of Zen Monkee’s debut single, ‘Turn It Around’ – a ’70s-infused jam that takes a number of twists and turns as the band flaunt their wandering instrumental inclination.

‘White Collared Clowns’, the latter of the two singles, bubbles away like a steady blues-rock ballad until the first guitar solo drops in around the 90-second mark.

From there, the song uses the spirited lead guitar as its foundation taking us on an spiraling odyssey before reaching its four-minute conclusion. This one’s got Led Zeppelin written all over it.

Check out the clip for ‘White Collared Clowns’ below.

Zen Monkee’s self-titled debut album is out on Friday November 20 via Citrus Records. Give it a listen here when it drops.

For more on the band, head to their Facebook and Instagram.

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