OKLAHOMA CITY – One of the OKC rock scene’s most indisputably intriguing groups is back with their most focused and compelling collection yet.
Left-field alt-rockers Monte have joined the rapidly rising ranks of OKC’s Mystery Class Records to drop their brand new “Fledgling,” a sextet of creatively prog-y tracks smearing indie, psych-folk, and post-rock all together into something complex and orchestrated, but still endearingly chaotic enough to keep up the fun.
It all starts rather unassumingly, with the gentle opening of “Sephiroth” all softly shimmering guitars and violin over a simple sauntering drum beat.
And that lasts about a good thirty seconds before the intensity ratchets up, the rhythms start morphing back and forth, and the band announces themselves properly in all their rougher-hewn glory.
This isn’t the pristine, precise, way-too-considered kind of prog, this is turn-on-a-dime indie energy laced as much with jagged guitars and post-punk momentum as with floating violin lines and patient, textural passages and moments not just of calm, but of beauty.
“Fledgling” offers a good dash of math-y, angular Tortoise throughout, and more than a dollop of recent prog-deconstructionists Black Country, New Road. But while Monte provide loads of moments and movements that can point to other acts or sounds, they fit them all together into something unique, and maybe even something definitively Oklahoman.
Snaking through the geometric arpeggios and left-turn time signature shifts is a heaping little helping of psych-folk, capturing that same windswept indie atmosphere that’s come to define a lot of recent Oklahoman standouts, from Call Me Sparrow to Compost Adjacent.
Some of the streamers even have the album listed as “Folk,” and if they’d slapped a qualifying “Alt-“ in front of it, I might be inclined to agree.
But the actual sound of “Fledgling” is way more fleshed out and complex than that. And no track seems to exemplify the full spectrum of styles and minds at work on the release than “Bee Café” opening with a driving little piece of highway-bound alt-folk that almost effortlessly evolves into something darker, rockier, and more chaotic.
By the time singer Noah Petrie is yelling “there’s something coming!” the breezy, window-down cruise of the song’s opening is fully eroded and replaced with paranoia and post-punk fear.
And then it all blows away and starts over, just as breezy as the first time around, before building into a propulsive outro jam (and maybe the best single guitar squeal I’ve heard in years.)
Like all the best offerings made under the “progressive” flag, every track on “Fledgling” is its own little sonic story with its own landscape and rhythmic language, even as the Monte sound is pretty singular and definable, at least, by the violin/guitar interplay and splashy, jazz-kissed drumming.
But for all the rougher rock edges and precariously contained energies wanting to burst from every song, it’s the moments of widescreen post-rock that not only make “Fledgling” special in a year like 2026 – a year embodied more by angst and dissonance – but that set Monte apart from many of their local peers.
While a lot of other acts are (understandably) racing to shout into the void, Monte are instead building their own little beauty around it, even as the distortion, the paranoia, and the driving, daunting realities of modern life are always finding their way in.
“Fledgling” by Monte is available on streaming services and Bandcamp now.
For more, follow @monteok on Instagram.
You can find out about local music and performance happenings in the OKC metro weekly in this music column by Brett Fieldcamp. | Brought to you by True Sky Credit Union.
Brett Fieldcamp is the owner and Editor in Chief of Oklahoma City Free Press. He has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly two decades and served as Arts & Entertainment Editor before purchasing the company from founder Brett Dickerson in 2026.
He is also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
