19. July 2025
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Media Review

Monotrone – 1 (One)

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Monotrone - 1 (One)

Monotrone - 1 (One)
4.1

Rating

 4.1/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Very mature, well developed tracks
  • Good listen

Monotrone is a rather new rock band from Switzerland. For their debut album, which will be published on 27th May 2022, they chose the most straightforward name: 1 (or: One). I ran into their songs on a promotion platform and just had to have a listen.

 

Monotrone – About The Artists

Monotrone are a Swiss alternative rock band founded on 2019. Their home town is Basel. The quartet consists of Philippe Strübin (vocals, guitar), Thomas Bäumli Baumgartner (vocals, guitar), Franky Kalwies (bass) and Fran Lorkovic (drums). All four have had a quite interesting background in music and worked in different succesful projects previously.

 

Monotrone – 1 (One) – Track by Track

The ten track album lasts 46 minutes.

1. Do You Know My Name

Full guitar power from the very first second of this 5:02 minutes opener: Monotrone create an energetic atmosphere from the very first moment. The sound is very mature, sounds like a very established band. You simply hear all the experience of the Swiss.

2. Stuck In Here

The hammering bass is the key element of Stuck in Here and creates a signature background to the second song. The trck has a bit of a whiny-melancholic sound, but the bass and guitar work still let you rock.

3. 1

The title track of the album takes the third position in the running order of songs. The feature single comes with a lot of promising power and an easy, catching melody. Very nicely written track, which stays in your head after listening – just the (melodic) business card a new band needs to establish in the music scene.

4. Hypersonic

Hypersonic goes for an atmospheric, spheric intro before the song increasing the rock power level. The chorus is a great listen.

5. Better

Better works with distorted vocals, electronic sounds, melodic instrumental parts. Overall, the song does not catch me as much as the ones before.

6. CC

The sixth song is a bit of slower. The song is concentrating on its vocals, which turns it to a really beautiful listen. It’s you who make me feel this way is the key line of the lyrics. Does not sound like a tooo happy relationship… But hey, it’s a good song instead.

7. Isolation

The vocals and the drumming are the key element of Isolation for me. They lead to a marching, dramatic atmosphere. The chorus is another great listen.

8. Skin

This is the second song the band has released as a single so far. The electronic beats and the melody even lead to a slight pop flavor. Good radio track (for the stations who are afraid of proper rock…).

9. Amalthea

Listening to Amalthea is an almost seven minute experience. The band makes use of that time and introduces some breaks and changes in mood. However, the song is overall rather straight and a fluent listen. Nice one – even though it is not on my favorites.

10. Hollow

The album closes with this rather straight alternative rocker. A reliable tracks, no flaws, just a good listen.

 

Monotrone – 1 (One) – Spotify

Here is the album on Spotify:

 

Monotrone – 1 (One) – My View

From the very first moment, Monotrone lets you feel that they are not a “newcomer” band. Even though they are debuting with this album, 1 (One) feels very well written, very mature. Good rock sound which sometimes reminds me a but of bands like HIM. Good listen.

 

More about Switzerland

Here are all postings related to Switzerland:

 

All “classic” blog posts

No reviews – just debating and certain topics – these are my “traditional” blog posts in the categories Just blogging, Just blogging on music and Sports Blogging:

 

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