Music:
Member Since: 4/20/2005
Band Website: monotonos.org
Band Members: Roger NBH
Influences: The Moon . Erik Satie . The colour green. Life itself.
Sounds Like: Sitting on the Moon.
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[.1] MONOTONOS - Freak vs. Man (CDR by Bake )
'Monotonos' is the debut release by a young composer based in Holland. Like the Kapotte Muziek CD, it is a short, powerful audio statement and well worth getting hold of. It consists of four tracks, although I perceive of them as all being parts of one piece - a bit like electronic chamber music - as there is a definite link there somewhere. The sounds were all generated by keyboards (I think) and the tracks range in length from just under a minute 'Years Past' to almost nineteen of them 'Far Yet Close'.
Sometimes I thinkfeel the long track is perhaps a little too long, considering it's content, although I may just be an impatient sod. Played softly it hovers like a swarm of gentle insects with wings of silk. Very, very good indeed....
OOPS! FUCK! - CORRECTION CORRECTION CORRECTION
Due to my basic incomprehension of the finely designed (yet almost illegible) artwork wrapped around a Bake Records CD I reviewed last week, I mistakenly attributed the work titled 'Monotonos' to a band called 'Freak vs. Man', when of course it should have been the other way round; viz. 'Freak vs. Man' by 'Monotonos'. Whacks all round !
* (Mark Poysden, Vital Weekly 158/159 )
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[.3] MONOTONOS - Remember September (CDR by Bake )
Monotonos, it seems, is the solo project of Roger NBH, who designs the Bake sleeves. There was a Monotonos track on the recent 'Microwave - A Manual' compilation and some of this would fit well within the context of that label's output. As his chosen moniker might suggest, the music is in the main minimalistic, repetitive and comprised of slow, distended slabs of gravelised sound, where sheer dark density is everything. Not necessarily computer-based but then it's difficult to tell.
The only light, and even that's lunarlight, is glimpsed on the avowedly organic, short (3:34) melodic piece Moon Over, where the source appears to be gently ringing, oneiric guitar work and centre-of-the-earth bass pulses.
It breaks up the proceedings in a bizarre fashion but genuinely does work in the midst of so much subterranean sweeping; a snatched mouthful of air before diving down once again. The title of the last track (Solo/So Low) summarises much more succinctly than this review could just where this album is at. Four tracks, with just over 33 minutes of deep listening pleasure.
* ( Brian Lavelle , Vital Weekly 261 )
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[.5] MONOTONOS - B Line To 8 (CDR by 4:13 snd:rcrdngs )
There was a time when I saw Mr. Monotonos on a quite regular basis and had the pleasure to be involved in some way or the other to be dealing with his first two CDR releases on Bake Records. The interests of Monotonos are with 'dark drone' music. But I decided to
move out of the big dirty city and he stayed and we lost a bit of contact. Recentely I found his name on a compilation again and checked his website, send an e-mail and got this CDR, on his own 4:13 snd:rcrdngs label - four is favourite number, just in case you wonder why there are only 44 copies around. On this release, which consists of a twenty minute live recording this one guy plays the MS20, guitar, a SK-5, a juno 60 and sound effects (and yet I never noticed the fact that he has 5 hands). Starting out with tinkle of piano, Monotonos over the course of this piece, depicts a world priarie's or tundra, with permafrost on top and a chilly wind touching that one tree that's left. Clearly inspired by lots of ambient post-rock guitar bands (hello Stars Of The Lid, I'd say), but with a strong
enough voice of his own - still. After all those years. And packed with a really nice cover.
* ( Frans de Waard , Vital Weekly 444 )
Record Label: Staalplaat, Hydrahead, Coalition, 4:13 + more....
Type of Label: Indie
