Calling Monoral a Japanese rock band is a triumph of geography over rationality.

The duo's singer Anis Shimada grew up in Europe, guitarist Ali Morizumi is half-American, and the experience rubbed off on them much more than on many of their compatriots (e.g.

Angela Aki).

Turbulence has virtually nothing to do with J-rock bands like L'arc-en-Ciel, Dir en Grey, or even Zazen Boys: what Monoral really provide is a record that mixes grunge and post-grunge in similar proportions, adding a healthy dose of English alt-rock in the vein of Muse.

Mixing grunge and post-grunge may sound paradoxical, but that's exactly what they do: "Vimana" or "Pocketful of Joy" are done in the vintage Pearl Jam style, while "Kiri" is a song Matchbox 20 would be proud (very proud) to have in their catalog.

The relative majority of the material does tend to be done grunge-style, although Monoral make it sound like a revival, not a rehash.

But the band's no one-trick pony: "Sparta" and "Pompadour," indeed, sound like Muse tracks with their barely contained hysteria, "Visions in My Head" is almost rock & roll, "Section 9" is a song that Foo Fighters never wrote, and even for "Kiri" it should be said that the song was used in the credits of the existential anime series Ergo Proxy, being paired there with "Paranoid Android," no less.

This is not to say Monoral sounds like Radiohead from a technical point of view, but the Japanese band does sometimes share some aura with the group that recorded The Bends and OK Computer.

Zoning out while listening to Turbulence may lead to some confusion about what you're listening to, but in fact the whole U.S./British rock pastiche works very well, be it thanks to the Monoral's lack of Western stereotypes or, more likely, simply to good songwriting.