The Monochrome Set

★★★ Allhallowtide TAPETE. CD/DL/LP

Venerable post-punk individualists keep it distinctive.

Allhallowtide ends with Parapluie, a piano instrumental where the only other sound is the pitter-pat of rain. It’s a fittingly reflective end to The

Monochrome Set’s sixteenth album. There’s a lot to look back on. After emerging in 1978 as idiosyncratic postpunks, as much informed by Lou Reed and The Shadows as bossa nova, there have been stops and starts but Allhallowtide’s main participants are original members Bid and Andy Warren. During I, Servant, Bid sings, “Servitude is wonderful… bondage is witchery”, yet there’s no evidence of history as a straightjacket. The spy theme-tinged Hello, Save Me retains their mid-’80s liveliness, while Moon Garden shimmers with an irrepressible romantic yearning. For long-time fans, the albums most evoked are the mid-’90s brace, Charade and Misère. The Monochrome Set remain unmistakeably themselves.