Monta at Odds

Outono, the latest release from evolving Kansas City, Kansas, brother band Monta at Odds, takes its title from the Portuguese word for “autumn.” And listening to the all-instrumental record might just drop you somewhere around late October. While drummer Eric Bessenbacher (of American Catastrophe) and bassist Dedric Moore lay down a soft, shifting rhythmic ground, the keys and synths of Delaney Moore and Zach Bozich drift and twirl overhead like leaves stirred up by wind, settling into easy layers that sometimes hint at definite melodic patterns and at other times drift and dart in gentle chaos. Monta’s technique of restrained improvisation and its dedication to coolness place the band’s sound in the vicinity of smoothies like Air and Thievery Corporation. Available in vinyl-plus-download format locally on February 13 and nationally a month later, Outono continues the live-instrument approach that this initially electronic-oriented group pioneered on its previous album, Gringo. With three full-lengths, two EPs, various remixes and a live sound installation in their catalog, the Moore brothers have been industrious in giving listeners an easy alternative to all that racket.