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06.01.03
To round up a whole bunch of little bits of news...
...Clue To Kalo (aka Super Science)'s forthcoming album to be European-published by the brilliant Leaf, congrats to Mark...
...radio stations playing Monotonik-released tracks all over the place, including German cable-radio here, WNUR@Chicago here, Radio-Z@Nuremburg here...
...the Aural Industries site has pictures from the Oz Soundsummit '02 with Sense, Epoq and more playing live, plus details of the Tim Koch remix CD they're releasing which includes him remixed by Goto80, Proem, Vim!, and more....
...Dharma's new single, 'Belong', on Nine2Five Records from Finland, is being played out by Gilles Peterson on his 'Worldwide' show and even features on Peterson's new 'GP03' compilation on TrustTheDJ....
01.01.03
After the guys at Planet Muzik Records in Chicago (this is unrelated to Planet Mu - don't get confused, heh!) heard Hoffman's music on the site and loved it, they signed up the LONG-time Mono warrior (he was on the first ever release in 1996!) to a contract. There's two planned initial 12" releases, both as promos of at least 500 copies, one with a Hoffman remix and one devoted completely to him:
#1 - 60nine - "Drive Through" with a Hoffman remix on the B-side.
#2 - Hoffman - "Deep Impact / Transit" [we've heard this may be a picture disc!]
This works really well cos we love Hoffman, but his harder techno and tech-house direction doesn't gel so well with our recent style (tho we do open up Mono211 especially for his stuff!), so it's GREAT he's getting an outlet this way.
15.12.03
Out very soon on Merck is the 'Dosage' 12" compilation, including new tracks by previous Monotonik releasers Xela, Vae, Luminfire, and TStewart = Machine Drum. Wikkid! Find out more about it (including sound samples) here. As always, lots of GREAT and mtk-related stuff coming soon from the Merck peeps, including albums from Esem, Secede, Proem, and Lackluster.
29.10.02
De-Bug, the excellent German newspaper-magazine, had our new wunderkind Grandma's 'Spinach Gas Room Spaghetti Straps EP' featured as the net-audio release of the month in the November 2002 issue. Here's highlights of the review (by Ckid's Rene, I think?), in horrifically badly-translated babelfish-ed English:
NETAUDIO OF THE MONTH:
GRANDMA: SPINACH GAS ROOM SPAGHETTI STRAPS EP
Monotonik droppt best release for a long time! ...Grandma dengelt purely into our hearts and kickt the autumn depression elegantly to the side. These hyper+active young wild ones always. Further so. Ask.
www.mono211.com
RENÉ *****
15.10.02
Lackluster's second album on DeFocus, 'Wrapping', was finally released on CD and vinyl LP in October 2002, and includes 14 tracks of gorgeous, mellow electronics in the typically neeto Lackluster stylee. We recommend you go to the official Lackluster discography page for the album to see the cover+tracklisting, plus links to online stockists. Also, the All-Music Guide gave 'Wrapping' an excellent review, which can be viewed here.
08.10.02
Currently being released are a series of 3 Lee 'Metamatics/Neo-Ouija' Norris remix albums on Hydrogen Dukebox. There's plenty of Monotonik link-ups on there, due to our similar affinity for quality material, so the first album, "Rewired In My Manor", includes Ilkae, Sleepy Town Manufacture, Sabi, Xela, Bauri, and more on remix duties, and garnered 5/5 in a recent Uncut review - yay! The second remix album, under Lee's Norken pseudonym, includes a bunch more #// regulars and net.freaks, including Sleepy Town Manufacture again - neeto.
05.10.02
Not only was Lackluster's 'Grind', as originally released on Monotonik, played on Coldcut's seminal 'Solid Steel' mix show on the 29th September 2002 by Coldcut themselves (see tracklisting here), but also, the site credits it to Monotonik, and not DeFocus, who released the CD/vinyl versions of it. Heh. Lucky accident? Probably. Fun nonetheless. :)
04.10.02
Coincidentally, just after some reminiscing on the messageboard about the super-rare Suojain002 2xCD compilation, which included a whole load of Monotonik artists and lots more besides, our friends at TPOLM made the full album available as mp3s here. This is great, since it was a limited-to-100 CDR release in the first place and very difficult to hunt down. The tracklisting includes Proswell, Lackluster, Esem, Mosaik, MD, Vae, Ilkae, CNCD (inc. Aleksi Eeben!), and a tonne more - it's well worth checking out!
25.09.02
Monotonik as a whole got a nice mention in the US paper-magazine Urb - their October 2002 issue, with Jurassic 5 on the cover, had a mini-review of the site in its mp3 reviews section, saying:
Monotonik, Mono211 et al - www.mono211.com -
As one of the oldest (1996) Internet-only labels, it's a damned shame URB hasn't mentioned Monotonik before now. But we're here to set the record straight. There's some good shit here. You want IDM? Check Lackluster, Thug, Colongib and countless others on the main imprint; for breakbeat try Mono211; there's even a spot for copyright-busting tracks. With over 300 MP3s to choose from, we'll simply point you in their general direction.
18.09.02
The much-awaited new Machine Drum CD, "Urban Biology", is out now on Merck, and actually includes his former Monotonik release, 'Floss'. But of equal or greater interest to Monotonik groupie should be the near-simultaneously released 'Half The Battle' remix CD, since _every single_ remixer (except Esem, and we like him!) has released on mtk+friends before, heh. To be precise, the remixes come from Proem, Brothomstates, Ilkae, Proswell, Lackluster, Xela, Esem, Tstewart, Secede, Vim!, Tim Koch and Syndrone. Wow, _SIGNIFICANTLY_ yummy action, go get it now at s://kimo or Forced Exposure if you're in the States or Boomkat if you're in the UK/Europe. Oh, and soundclips are available on the m3rck site. That is all. :P
18.09.02
Super Science, the excellent former Surgery artist and Monotonik releaser, has been away for a while, and is now back in a new guise as Clue To Kalo, and has a forthcoming album on US label Mush Records, home of the geniuses that are Anticon (plus CloudDead, Aesop Rock, Boom Bip, Labtekwon, DoseOne and more..) He's also due to be touring the States and Europe in the New Year with Anticon, and there are rumors of a VERY cool European label picking up his new album - watch this space. And in the meantime, go check out his excellent site, complete with frontispiece doodle by the rathercool Jim Woodring, hah.
18.09.02
Mine and your monotonik.retro.hero, Aleksi 'Heatbeat' Eeben, kicked some serious ass over multiple competitions at the Assembly '02 demo-party in Helsinki, Finland, held in late July '02. The results reveal that he got 3rd in the oldskool music competition with his "Child's Play" Gameboy tune, 2nd in the oldskool graphics competition, 6th in the mobile demo competition with the "Child's Play" demo on Gameboy, and 3rd in the oldskool demo competition with "Software Developer's Air Display" on the Commodore VIC-20 - and ALL of the content (code/graphics/music) was made by him! All of the music and demos (some hosted via the nascent Monotonik project 'modsoulbrother') are available on Aleksi's site, with movie versions of the demos grabbable at scene.org if you can't get emulation working right.
18.09.02
One of the Braces Tower tracks we recently released on Mono211, "Valedictory", has been licensed by Pork Records (Fila Brazillia, Baby Mammoth, etc.) for their forthcoming "Dub Plates From The Lamp, Vol.3" compilation, so Braces Tower has asked us to take it down, since they wanted exclusive rights. We've removed all links to it, but (*hint*), it still may be floating around a mirror or two if people still want to check it out. :P We also found out a little more about the elusive Braces Tower recently - apparently, he was formerly part of the band The LoveBlobs, who were signed to Wiija (Cornershop, Therapy?, Bis, etc.) in the early '90s, did a Peel Session, and even supported Radiohead at some point in their careers. And if you like bootlegs, you'll want to check out his site for a sublime cut-up of Coldplay, TLC, and The Streets in 'Original Cold Scrubs'. :)
18.09.02
The excellent Tim Koch has his mini-disc only 'Mine Is Yours' remix album released later this year on N5MD, containing entirely his remixes of other artists, and with those artists including Hrvatski, Marumari, Proem, MD, Suvome, Lackluster, MD, and more, it seems like a pretty wicked release if you have a mini-disc player - or just enjoy staring at mini-discs :P He also has a very limited-edition 3" CDR from his 8-Bit Orchestra moniker out on the Japanese store/label, Duotone Records. And he's currently wandered off on a European jaunt to help promote himself - and help the Australian Government spend their arts budget :) Neeto.
18.09.02
Rounding up a few loose ends, there's a spate of Monotonik-related artist albums coming out in the next few months. We've mentioned before that super-gorgeous ambient Russian duo, Sleepy Town Manufacture have an album out soon on Neo-Ouija Records, who've also just released the Xela album. But also, recent releaser Secede has an album coming early next year on Merck Records. Oh, and long-time affiliate Idmonster is just starting to prepare an album for Red Antenna Recordings. And Monotonik itself? Why, we're preparing a.. oh, well, that would be jumping the gun a little :P Just you wait and see.
29.06.02
The previously mentioned net.radio station using Monotonik music with text-to-voice spam mail over the top, Spamradio, was nominated for a 2002 Webby Award in the 'Weird' category! The Webby Awards are presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, and are sorta the Emmy or Oscar-equivalent for websites. Sadly, the guys at Spamradio didn't win (beaten by 'All Our Base Are Belong To Us'? the shame!), but congrats again for the nomination and cool use of Monotonik tracks.
29.06.02
It's been in the works for a while, but thought we should point out the Aural Industries release of the "Thug:Remixed" album, which Monotonik have just released a sampler to support. The full album has remixes from 15 artists, including Pimmon, Super Science, Lackluster, Aspen, Sense, and a bunch of others. There was also a release party at Frigid in Adelaide, Australia on June 15th which featured Tim Koch/Thug, Sense, and Epoq, all Monotonik friends and releasers/soon-to-be-releasers. Neato!
29.06.02
Here's a recent review for the excellent Vim! "Linden:Home Of The Hits" CD, courtesy of DB Magazine in Australia:
Vim! - 'Linden - Home Of The Hits'
Surgery / Inertia
This is yet another release in a long line of brilliant albums from local
label Surgery Records. Vim! [otherwise known as Keith Baylis] is a
nostalgic electronic composer from the UK, and 'Linden - Home of The
Hits' is a recording of retro Commodore 64 and Atari half-bit sounds
systems and atmospheric ambience. Art of spelling It Rite sets the
tone for the album, juxtaposing of an ambient electronic soundscape
with a distinctly '80s aesthetic. Other experiments are just as astonishing,
with cheesy keyboard sounds balancing precariously over a resonating
electronic minimalism on You Know Laura.
Vim!'s retro obsession reaches a crescendo on How We Wrote Promotional
Video which is horribly indescribable. The disturbing thing about Vim! is that
he makes these 'out of time' or 'out of place' sounds actually sound melodic
and beautiful.
The most important element here is that Baylis goes on to demonstrate the
lineage from '80s electro to contemporary experimental electronica with
intelligence and determination. Leopold 45 suggests his musical maturity
in a piece of ambient brilliance which defies definition. The moving and
evocative dreamscape of Thin Strips of You traces the history of ambience
from Eno to Vangelis to Aphex Twin (and other contemporary experimenatl
artists). In fact, the old-worldly title of Hot Rum And Lemon, Gannet! disguises
the fact that it is really an advanced and sophisticated excursion into beat cutting.
It's a frenetic piece which is sure to appeal to fans of the 'Twins Come to Daddy.
Yet none of this compares to the breathtaking conclusion of the album - Something
About Winter. Saving his best until last, this delicate, intelligent and thoughtful track
is powerfully sinister with its resonating and distorted organ tones. 'Linden - Home
of The Hits' is a provoking and challenging listen and a must for anyone who has a
C64 emulator on their PC.
Anthony Paxton.
29.06.02
Pretty much coincidentally, Lee Metamatics @ Neo-Ouija totally dug the recent Monotonik releasers + Russian duo, Sleepy Town Manufacture, at the same time we did, and we hear rumors from both him and the STM guys of a forthcoming album release (NEO20?) on the consistently gorgeous Neo-Ouija. Yay, yay, and thrice yay!
29.06.02
Lackluster's 'Album Sampler' 12" for DeFocus is getting really neat press, with his "Wrapping" album now due in September. Here's a recent review from the smart US electronica magazine, XLR8:
Lackluster - 'Album Sampler'
DeFocus/UK/12'
If Pan Sonic depict the interval when Finland is shrouded in endless night, this chapter of Finnish-born Esa Ruoho's Lackluster project may best characterize the beatific moment when a glimpse of sunlight peeks through the dark canopy. Here, on this prelude to his forthcoming 'Wrapping' full-length, Ruoho eschews the isolationism that characterized his 'Spaces' album on U-Cover for a chilled express-ride into the Sun with stop-overs in Detroit, Dusseldorf, and London.
"In Passing" glides by like a drive in the country with Terry Riley, Kraftwerk and Aphex Twin onboard, while "Gid" finds a perfect spot to rest between "Man Machine"-era Kraftwerk and vintage Warp. Elsewhere, like on "Glimmer", a fractured organ riff weaves among bits of tipsy electro. It may all be a bit 1986. But lackluster? Anything but.
Alexis Georgeopoulos
14.04.02
Heh, so Monotonik's recently got a number of new listeners and publicity from an unexpected and very cool source. This is a net.radio station which broadcasts ONLY text-to-speech versions of email spam, with a backing of Monotonik tracks. It's called Spamradio and you can get to it at spamradio.com. The tracks they use include material by artists like Ckid, Aereal, Tweeter, Idmonster, Lackluster, Mosaik, Pretty Boy Crossover, Sense, and more. Neat!
14.04.02
For those who remember former Monotonik and Milk releaser Fu(n) Tourist, also 'perhaps' related to a No'Mo' release, heh.. we noted a while back that he got signed to Sony Finland. Well, his first single went Top 20 in Finland, and his second single Top 10! There's a website at
www.fu-tourist.com with some neat info :) Us here @ mtk were also digging around cos we found his remix of Bomfunk MC's (who are an _awful_ euro-rap outfit!) online, and it's frickin' great in a pseudo-Daft Punk way. Oh, and as a special bonus, try clicking here -
yep, his Finnish hit "King Kong Of The Dancefloor" as a ringtone :P More info at some point, congrats, Jori!
14.04.02
Although the Breakwater Crew (Dharma + Dice/Prob. + friends) website hasn't been updated for a while, we did notice some amazing live d+b mp3s from a Helsinki gig they did in November 2001, and they're available for download here, here, and here. Blistering stuff, complete with live MC!
17.03.02
Since it seems to have gone unmentioned recently here, it's worth pointing out another label with
some neato Monotonik connections, the excellent N5MD. Having started with a pair of mini-disc-only compilations, there's now releases out and forthcoming from both Proem and Tim Koch, both
Monotonik artists in the past. There's also a N5MD radio section on their site, with live sets from both Tim Koch and Proem, and their new Vesna 7" has links to the great Russian scene we're starting to mine with the Sleepy Town Manufacture release. Neato.
17.03.02
There's a very odd radio mix (from the German radio show Buschfunk) that's been put up online recently. It features a bunch of Monotonik and Mono211 artists (Sense, Ramone, Mosaik, Aereal) soundclashing with George Benson playing cheesy Beatles covers, Shut Up and Dance, The Mystic Moods Orchestra doing easy-listening, and.. Acen. Uhh.. right. But if mixing the unmixable was the point, it's actually kinda fun. The tracklist and full 3-hour mix (175mb!) is available for a limited time only from their website here.
27.01.02
Lackluster's excellent set of releases on the acclaimed DeFocus continues with a new 12" (FOC368, '[album sampler']) ahead of his second album for them, "Wrapping". The sampler includes 6 tracks, as follows, and should be available all over the place (including WarpMart) now:
[side a] -- in passing | gid | KCL1
[side b] -- glimpses | glimmer | 01.it (suntrap original 1998)
27.01.02
Seems like Vim's "Linden:Home Of The Hits" CD on Surgery made it all the way to Tokyo, where someone snapped this neat picture of it being sold, with effusive Japanese praise appended, in a Rough Trade store. A friend of ours provided some rough translation, as follows:
"From the dude that brought you a Marumari remix, Vim!'s album comes as a B. Fleischmann-like journey into the world of warm electronica. You may have heard this UK electronica artist in the background of some Playstation games. And by taking lo-fi game sound effects and using them as the main electro beat in the tracks, Vim! beats you down with his warm, electronic sound!! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!"
27.01.02
The rather smart Phasmid is now getting noticed by a number of people, with the Skylaboperations label picking up on his unique take on electronics. They're putting out a CDR EP of remixes, then a double CD later this year, with an original album and more cool remixes from the likes of Bochum Welt, I Am Robot And Proud, Sweet Trip, and more. Way to go, Phasmid :P
27.01.02
Further praise for Tim Koch (Thug)'s DeFocus 12"/album output, as the excellent UK music mag, Jockey Slut, rated it a 'HIT!' (I think there's only one per page of reviews!) in its October 2001 issue, with prose as follows, and note more amusing pronunciation 'woes':
TIM KOCH (HIT!)
Volume EP (DeFocus)
That's 'Kosh' okay as Adelaide's finest exponent of electronica must have had to re-iterate a thousand times in the school playground. Harking back to the days of Black Dog as a trio and forward to Boards of Canada style harmonics Mr. 'Kosh' will certainly find plenty of friendly ears in the AI home listening camp with this six pack of aural amber nectar. Not a load of bowwox then. JS
27.01.02
Heh, here's the first in a possible series of 'where are they now?' FAQs for those wondering where artists who haven't released on Mono for a while are. So, in no particular order..
Twilight is back in the games industry again in the UK, doing sound design for Playstation 2 games at Sony Cambridge ("Medievil"). Maybe he'll even get back to composing sometime soon :)
Whiskas (a great lost .MOD composer!) re-appeared recently on our radars, and is currently assembling junk orchestras to play for the Crown Prince of Norway (!!). He's also given us permission to release his 'lost' mp3 from 1998 or so which was once planned as a vinyl project from Monotonik..
OK, more gossip regarding lost titans (or weenies) soon :P
14.11.01
We were delighted to note that a track from Tim Koch's Defocus release, "Shorts In Alaska", got played out on UK national Radio 1 by that disc-spinning deity, John Peel. Mind you, he does play all kinds of random shiznitz :P But it was worth hearing the song just to hear the normally sardonic Peel after-announcement wrestle with Tim's name. And we grabbed Peelie's lead-out on mp3 for your delectation here - should have stuck with Thug, hey, Tim? :P
14.11.01
Here's some more info on the Ckid (yes, aka Crashkid for the terminally confused!) vinyl and remix action forthcoming. Here's the 12" info for his Becalmed Records release:
Ckid - "Crashkid went there."
01/2002 - 12” (no 006)
Tracks:
1. Resetto
2. Noomoon (the space in-between these things)
3. Something like chocolate
4. Touchy
5. Robot-hug
6. Was happy
The other stuff includes a remix of German band The Flamingo Massacres, room on the Couchblip compilation alongside Funkstorung, Fibla, Novel23, and stuff for Simball Records, amongst others. Good luck to Ckid for all forthcoming releases!
14.11.01
Just a note to confirm that the Tim Koch (Thug, definitely _not_ DJ Fish Finger :P) album, "Shorts In Alaska", FOC363, has now been released on CD/LP from DeFocus Records - check out their website for the excellent cover-image, and check out all usual online stockists (see below!) to buy it, it should also get pretty decent real-life distribution, ohmy. :P
14.11.01
We just noticed that the forthcoming Playstation 2 jetski videogame from Eidos Interactive, "Wave Rally", has a soundtrack licensed from Moving Shadow which includes Dharma and Dice(=Prob.!), our old Mono211 chums! They're featured alongside greats like Omni Trio, Dom and Roland, Tech Itch, and we presume it's one of the sides of their Audio Couture single that's been licensed. Sadly, no Mono211 releases from the dynamic duo for quite some time, tho we do speak to them a bit - they're very busy with real-life releases and seem to be doing great. Up with the Helsinki massif :P
22.09.01
The excellent UK-based real-life and online shop, PelicanNeck, has started stocking more recent Surgery releases, including albums by Monotonik-faves PBXO and Vim! (go buy 'em NOW!), and here's what they had to say about them after making each of on their featured releases for the week:
PRETTY BOY CROSSOVER : The building and formation - Surgery - CD £10.99
Australia's Surgery records fire back with this inspired debut release from Pretty Boy Crossover. For those of you who fell in love with the deep and soulful Hip-Hop interpretations of Machine Drum, 'The Building And Formation' meets its sound somewhere directly in between said LPs killer beats and Boards of Canadas lush emissions. Its hard to fault a record that is simply so FAT. Opening up with X-3 Fader you know this is a no-messing kind of record, full of the deepest kinds of B-Boy beats mangled in with nostalgic keys and late night washes of warmth. 'Blu-Glo' is another candy-coated gem, somewhere between classic Autechre and Sweetest Casino Vs Japan...and done with such skill and refinement. Rumour has it that this record was set for a release on Skam, and this would have made a truly classic Skam release. How great to find a record this good appearing literally out of nowhere. Without doubt a Future Classic that comes with the highest Pneck recommendation. Killer!
VIM : Linden, Home Of The Hits - Surgery - CD £10.99
Wonderful cover art- showing the kind of corner shop everyone needs, disguises a warm and approachable excursion into tricky beats and the finest in lounge-tronica, complete with yr favourite Watermelon Man cocktail. Oh Yes.. This often humourous set manages to produce appealing melodic elements from amongst the depths of some medium-fierce rhythms, the effect is quite magical consistently, like a dream sound scape for inner city life. Good tunes. Great track titles i.e. Angel delight saved me, Hot darts action, Winging it, Shut down and sit up...well worthy of your attention. If you missed the Pretty boy Crossover set the other week, you urgently need to catch up with this innovative South Australian label and this ace full-length as soon as...
22.09.01
The full-length album from Tim Koch has now been announced on DeFocus Records - it's called "Shorts In Alaska" (FOC363), and should be out sometime before the end of the year. Look for full tracklisting soon, and when it's out you'll find it at all usual stockists, including Warpmart and Smallfish.
22.09.01
The full-length LP on Warp by Brothomstates (peripherally mtk.related, heehee!) has now been announced as WAP88, "Claro", click here for Warp site feature on it. One particularly interesting thing for Monotonik fans is that two of the tracks on it started out as remixes for Monotonik-related artists. Track 2, "Brothomstates Ipxen", was originally a rejected remix of Lackluster for the DeFocus "R U Oho?" 12" release. Additionally, Track 6, "mdrmx", is the Brothomstates remix of md which appears on the Merck "Appelsap" CD. Good luck to Lassi, and check out his neat Warp microsite with supercool Flash generative thingy coded by Bstates himself.
22.09.01
The big boss-eediot of Monotonik, h0l, was asked to speak about the demo-scene and videogames at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria, this year, after Monotonik got invited last year and Subi and Lackluster made it (Subi's 2000 photo-diary is here.) h0l had lots of fun showing Melon Dezign crack-intros to art-world wallahs (trip is documented here), but whilst he was there, long-time Mono friend Stefan Trischler interviewed him about Monotonik for FM4, Austrian national radio, and put up a version of the interview (mainly in English) on the FM4 website here.
14.08.01
The demo-crew Sunflower constructed a 'wild-demo' (essentially a video-demo) which takes the form of a music-video to Lackluster's sublime '13/10/99' track, as previously released on Monotonik. The music-video, directed by Pauli Ojala, aka Saffron/TBL+Sunflower, blends beautiful filmed footage with smart ambient demo-style gorgeousness, and, providing you have the bandwidth, it's a must-download. It placed 4th in the wild-demo competition at Assembly '01 in Helsinki, Finland. There's a nicely presented download page with links to the 56meg (!) MPEG version and the 24meg Quicktime 5 version here, DIVX version supposedly coming soon, and there's also another link to the
MPEG version and reviews+comments via the excellent pouet.net here.. enjoy!
14.08.01
Here's a super-mini-round-up of misc stuff all in a sentence.. *deep breath* - Vim! and PBXO CD reviews at FAQT magazine here and here respectively, excellent Thug-authored article about the Commodore 64/SID chip with Bodenstandig, Bochum Welt, Vim!, SidStation and HardSid-makers mini-interviews and more here,
plus Vim! mini-discography is here, yay...
29.07.01
The first Tim Koch (=Thug) release on excellent UK label DeFocus (responsible for all the Lackluster releases, plus CiM, John Tejada, Plus One, Esem, etc..) is out now, and it's a 12" called 'Volume'. Here's the info:
foc362 - tim koch - 'volume ep' - 12"
A1 - bounce
A2 - mumbersome
A3 - besoit
B1 - what in the world
B2 - bananalution
B3 - track_3
You can get hold of the EP at a bunch of real-life stockists plus many of the below-mentioned online stores, including the ratherwicked WarpMart - also, Pelicanneck had the EP featured last week and said real nice things about it.
Oh, and Tim wrote on our messageboard: 'on this record you can hear me: skateboarding, opening a bottle of wine, playing bass guitar, using a sidstation' - haha, cool! :P
29.07.01
Dharma, Dice (=Prob.) and Bluez have launched the site related to their excellent Finnish d+b collective, Breakwater Crew, at www.breakwatercrew.com - includes info on their collective releases to date, plus upcoming gigs (whee, playing MoonTV pool @ Koneisto Festival, you go, guys!) Go check it out :)
29.07.01
We referenced it a lot earlier in the year, but just wanted to confirm that Sense's album, "A View From A Vulnerable Place", is out now on CD and LP from Lee Metamatics' great Neo-Ouija imprint. Here's the full tracklisting (it's NEO10 CD/LP, btw - you can buy it from the Neo-Ouija shop and most good online stockists, plus anywhere real-world served by Ideal Distribution..):
1 - Elran
2 - Choice
3 - Starwalk V2
4 - All Is You
5 - Allaroundme
6 - 5-5
7 - Ear Of The Behearer
8 - Lament
9 - View From Another Place
10 - Eb Ni Twein
Also, the upcoming Neo-Ouija double compilation, "Cottage Industries 2", includes Sense, plus a bunch of other mtk-related notables (Lackluster, Bauri, Proem, and even Idmonster's "The Force May Be With You" track, which Lee Neo-Ouija heard on Monotonik and liked so much he included it on the comp!) Other cool artists on "CI2" include Kettel, EU, Funckarma, Novel23.. smart.
29.07.01
There's an mini-interview regarding Monotonik on the rathercool net.magazine Substancezine, which has Rene Ckid talking to h0l - it's currently available here, and we've put up a local graphics-stripped mirror here for when the next issue comes along and the URL changes :) Eez cool, no?
19.07.01
Well, I guess he's not strictly a Monotonik artist (we released a .MOD by him under his old handle of Dune, waayback, cos we begged a lot, heehee), but he's still an ex-demo-scener and
friend and remixer of Lackluster, plus he's down with the rest of the TPOLM posse like Fthr and md who rock and help us out lots, sooo.. this pasted from Warpnet:
"Brothomstates aka Lassi Nikko from Suomi, Finland is the latest signing to Warp Records. The Qtio Ep will be the first release for Warp and is out on August 6th.
Qtio tracks:
1) Qtio
2) Jak Got Stuck In Canada And This Sounds Like
3) Loose Fit
4) Vleade
5) Adozenaday
6) Brothomstates Vs Bill Yard
Brothomstates debut album, CLARO (Warp 88) will be released on 17th September."
[Check out the Warp site for some realaudio samples and the Designer's Republic cover-art, whee!]
30.06.01
Update on the new Vim! and PBXO albums and their availability - they're both available _NOW_ at the following online stores:
Bent Crayon (US), Skimo (US). The PBXO album is available now at Bent Crayon and Skimo too, and both are
well worth picking up! We'll try to update this page with any reviews of them we see.
30.06.01
Oh, and if you're in Europe and interested in getting much
Monotonik-related material, try Suojain (Finland), which has lots of stuff including Merck material, the new Esa Ruoho U-Cover CD (which
is also available at Pelicanneck, Hedonizm, Rough Trade, more..), and
should be getting the Sushi Brother 7" when it arrives (more on that soon!). Also, Smallfish (both the shop in London and the online mail-order!) has the
best collection of Lackluster stuff around (5 releases on vinyl and 2 CDs, Esa says...)
28.05.01
OK, so since there's been quite a lot of confusion about where and when you can buy the releases on Surgery and Merck Records, the
two labels that offer the most material from Monotonik-related artists, here's a mini-discography and availability info, as of 28/05/01 (please note, all of this is subject to
change, but this should help a lot!):
[Surgery Records - Adelaide, Australia - website - all releases CD only.]
surge001 - Various Artists - "Initial Release" (includes Lackluster, Vim!, Sleepy, MD, Duann, PBXO, Super Science..)
surge002 - Super Science - "Love Like Life In Miniature"
surge003 - Modula - "Audio Dismantle" (Modula = Duann+friend..)
surge004 - Aspen - "Are You That Retail Snob?"
surge005 - Pretty Boy Crossover (PBXO) - "The Building And Formation"
surge006 - Vim! - "Linden - Home Of The Hits"
All of these releases include artists who've released on Monotonik before except the Aspen CD, which is re-issued from New Zealand's Involve Records
and is absolutely excellent too. As to where to get these CDs, try the following online stores:
Bentcrayon (USA) - www.bentcrayon.com - has "Initial Release", Super Science, Modula, Aspen...
Skimo (USA) - www.skimo.com - has Super Science, Modula..
Safety In Numbers (USA) - www.safetyinnumbers.net - has Super Science, Modula..
Pelicanneck (UK) - www.pelicanneck.com - has "Initial Release"...
When the PBXO and Vim! albums are sent out overseas, they should be available at most/all of these above outlets, too.. we'll try to tell
you when!
[Merck Records - Miami, USA - website - all releases CD unless mentioned.]
merck001 - Syndrone - "Triskaideka"
merck002 - Various Artists - "Squadron" (includes Lackluster, Frank Bolero, MD, BStates, Bauri..)
merck003 - MD - "Appelsap" (includes remixes from Thug, Frank+Bill, BStates..)
merck004 - Various Artists - "Aurora" (includes Proem, Sense, Lackluster, Soundstate (=4T Thieves)..)
merck005 - Machine Drum - "Now You Know"
merck006 - Proem - "Negativ"
merckSA - MD - "Appelsap remix 12'" (same great remixes as CD version!)
merckMR - Various Artists - "Squadron Sampler 12'" (inc. Lackluster+Frank Bolero, MD, BStates, + exclusive-to-vinyl Lackluster track, 'Haloaw'..)
Many of these releases contain Monotonik artists too, and are well worth getting hold of - even the ones that don't (Machine Drum, for example)
are great. As to where to get these CDs + vinyl, try the following online stores:
Warpmart (UK) - www.warp-net.com/mart - has most/all releases..
Merck Records (USA) - www.m3rck.net - has all CD releases..
Skimo (USA) - www.skimo.com - has most/all releases..
Pelicanneck (UK) - www.pelicanneck.com - has most/all releases..
Electro-Violence (Japan) - www.electro-violence.com - has first 3 releases at least..
28.05.01
Vim's debut CD on Surgery Records, "Linden - Home Of The Hits", has been getting mucho radio play in Surgery's native Australia, and should be available
online v.soon - CDs are all pressed up and promo copies have been sent out! The Surgery crew have also been playing out live at the Minke Bar, Adelaide,
more than once of late (it's where Kylie Minogue hangs out when she's in the area, kidz!), and inbetween live sets from Tim Koch and Modula (Duann+friend),
Vim's CD has been playing out to great interest.
01 - the art of spelling it rite
02 - winging it
03 - you know laura
04 - the snow set
05 - shut down and sit up
06 - hot darts action
07 - just some pings
08 - how we wrote promotional video
09 - hot rum and lemon, gannet
10 - exists in bad sectors
11 - leopold 45
12 - jackie batey
13 - better known as craprak
14 - having a tinkle
15 - saftey blitz
16 - angel delight saved me
17 - thin strips of you
18 - something about winter
(12, 16, and 17 are collected on Monotonik as part of the 'Timecrunch EP'..)
28.05.01
Tim Koch (aka Thug) of Surgery is confirmed for forthcoming 12" and CD release on DeFocus, home of Lackluster, John Tejada, CiM,
and a bunch of Monotonik-related or admired artists, after his recent appearance on a 12" sampler for them. Niice. Oh, and mini-bonus, a nice review of the
"Did You See?" compilation in a recent Urb (US dance mag) would be available, scanned-in, here, including
mention of a 'majestic' "Starcell UK", remember where you heard it first, kidz ;)
28.05.01
This is probably deserving of a separate news item - people may be pleased to know that both DeFocus (home of Lackluster, Tim Koch, remixes from BStates, Sense, Bauri, etc..) and Merck (MD, Proem, compilation appearances by Lackluster, Sense, Frank Bolero, etc..) can both be purchased from the online store of legendary label Warp,
also known as WarpMart. This is great news, especially
since Warp don't sell just any old labels thru WarpMart, just the artists they really dig..
28.05.01
More Vim! news, as we learn he's remixed Marumari, rather smart US idm-er, for Marumari's forthcoming 'Supermogadon' remix LP that's coming out
on Darla (cool space-indie-idm-rock label, home of Isan, Piano Magic, Land Of Nod, and others..) The LP should be out much later this year - other remixers
include To Rococo Rot, Cex, Electric Company, and the ubiquitous Tim Koch ;)
28.05.01
There's been some further updates to the Leafcutter John (Planet Mu artist!) remix challenge online, and there's two new remixes up of interest to
Monotonik fans, one from Esa Ruoho (aka Distance/Lackluster!), and another from.. Lackluster himself! Both well worth the download, and, as before, available from
here.. (there's also Vim! and XLLV remixes up there, lest you forget!)
28.05.01
Mono211 artist and Finnish breaks-meister, Prob., aka Dice, has set up his own d+b label, Mango Funk, following his appearances on labels like Audio Couture and Formation, and it's got its own
website, too, at mangofunk.com. As you can see, the first release, "Love Isn't Just A Feeling/Dirty Cop", is out now,
pressed and distributed by major UK distributor, Nu Urban Music. Nice going..
08.04.01
Buschfunk, a German radio station/show (in Dresden?) featured Monotonik, along with Vae's label Kahvi, in their radio broadcast on Nov.29th, 2000. What's kinda
cool is that they have complete archives of all their weekly shows in mp3, so you can go and download it if you want to hear what
they said (in German!) and played (Vae, Proem, Lackluster, and Prob.!) - check it out here.. it's 60meg, mind you :)
08.04.01
As part of a web remix project, Planet Mu artist Leafcutter John made a bunch of his samples available so anyone could remix his
track, and then get it posted on his site. The first batch of remixes have just been put up, and include mixes from Electric Company,
Aem, the infamous Speedranch, and our very own Vim!, plus one from our mysterious former Mario-remixer, XLLV. Definitely worth checking out, leech the mp3s here..
08.04.01
Some more news about former Mono211 mainstay and most excellent Finnish breaksta Dharma. His classic Mono211 release "Dance To The Drummer's Beat" has
already been featured on vinyl on the "Coffee Breaks" comp (scroll down for info!), but now it's also been compiled on the latest of the legendary
"Dope On Plastic" compilations, alongside artists such as Ballistic Brothers and Kenny Dope! Check out tracklisting (via Amazon UK) here.
Also, his band Quintessence have recently signed to Dorado (home of D*Note, Kid Loops, and other excellent jazzy+electronic artists!), and have released their
first EP, "White Light", soundclip available here. Congrats again to Dharma - keep making us proud :P
10.03.01
We @ Monotonik WHQ recently got hold of our copy of the _most excellent_ Surgery Records
"Initial Release" compilation, which was somewhat delayed and eventually got released in Australia in January/February (for those who forget, it's a 2xCD compilation
with tracks from _tonnes_ of Monotonik artists + friends, including Vim!, Lackluster, Sleepy, MD, Super Science, PBXO, etc..) Distribution around the
rest of the world for this and other Surgery releases, including Super Science and Duann/Modula albums has now been secured, and you'll see "Initial Release"
easily available at Skimo soon, plus some real nice European distribution via Hausmusik too.. And finally, we can confirm that the PBXO (Pretty Boy Cross Over) album,
"The Building And Formation", which was originally due out on Skam (and we@Monotonik mentioned when releasing the great mp3 from them a few months back), is now due out on Surgery.. PBXO are
supporting Arab Strap live when they play Melbourne, too, as well as releasing a new mp3 on Monotonik soon..
10.03.01
Amazing, spectacular, phantasmagorical news for Monotonik fans! Surgery Records has officially announced a forthcoming CD from Monotonik mainstay and actual genius, Vim! :) It's called "Linden - Home Of The Hits", and it's got 18 action-packed tracks on it, and is due out sometime in the next
coupla months on Surgery. With their excellent new distribution via Skimo and Hausmusik (see above news article!), it should be available pretty much worldwide,
and Vim! is truly in good company on the label alongside PBXO, Super Science, Thug, Aspen, and so on.. Anyhow, we'll keep you posted as to the album's availability - tracklisting coming soon..
10.03.01
Long, long-time Monotonik-affiliate, 3818919/w, is hosting a little DJ engagement at a bar in Guildford, UK, next week. The info is as follows:
3hree8ight. 2 hour electronic & cinema dj set. beat-matching discarded. all formats utilised. labels guide : skam, rephlex, warp, planet mu, others. location : Pews wine bar, Chapel Street, Guildford, UK. Find Gap Kids on the High street then go down the alley - it's on the left. Time+Date : 9pm-11pm, Wednesday 14th March 2001. No admission fee.
We strongly suggest you go if you're in the area and want to hang out and feed yr mind :) Nicely designed flier here with mini-map. :)
10.03.01
Info on a live gig in Miami, Florida, involving a couple of Monotonik-friends. It's the Infiltrate 3.0 anti-festival, which was started as a counterpoint to the Miami
Winter Music Conference, and on Saturday March 24th, starting at 8pm, MD will be playing live at the opening event at Churchill's, alongside a massive
line-up including Prefuse73, Bahamadia, Beta Bodega, Cannibal Ox, and much more. Meanwhile, the closing event on Monday March 26th has Proem (whose forthcoming CD is
out on Merck, btw!) playing out alongside another massive line-up including Buck65, Phoenicia, Richard Devine, Afu-Ra, Ectomorph, and
Mixmaster Morris. Wow. Make it if you can :)
10.03.01
A little bit of late info, if anyone wondered what happened to the Finnish long-time Monotonik releaser, Substance. He's still around, and released his first piece of vinyl
as part of the "Coffee Breaks EP" vinyl on the Finnish Nine2Five label - the track was under the name General Compact, and the trackname was
"Violet". And interestingly, Dharma's old Mono211 release "Dance To The Drummer's Beat" was also released on that 12", if anyone is looking for that _great_ song
on vinyl..
10.03.01
Lackluster (aka Distance), as always, is coming out with new stuff on vinyl + CD, with a number of his former DeFocus releases featured on their
first retrospective compilation, "Did You See", plus a forthcoming colored purple 7" on Zeal, and a CD release for U-Cover. And the Lackluster 7"
on Rikos Records was mentioned by Mike Paradinas (Mu-Ziq) on his Planet Mu website as one of his favorite releases in February. Niiice. Info, as always,
at the Lackluster discography page..
28.01.01
A really interesting project worth noting, especially because a number of Monotonik-related artists are involved, is the
public-access (+cable?) 'ambient TV' show Frogbomb, which features a number of half-hour
programs of music composed by one individual artist per show, accompanied by neat ambient visuals. The first show, featuring Sense, is available to watch on the site, and forthcoming shows _may_ include such artists as Lackluster, Tim Koch (Thug), and Proem, as
well as possibly Freeform, Vladislav Delay, and more.. time well tell, eh? Anyhow, looks well worth supporting, as does a possible
DVD of the first series when it's done..
28.01.01
Monotonik is one of the featured artists in an article on noted mp3 site Audiogalaxy, entitled 'Giving It Away',
about the emergence of net.mp3.labels such as ourselves. Also featured are the rather smart NoType and
Fatcat-related e-rmx.com :) Apparently, us and NoType are 'the cream of the crop', and the article also namechecks Crashkid and Super Science as two
of the best artists on our site. Nice..
28.01.01
Recently released after a lot of careful preparation, Maz's 2xCD .MOD compilation, 'Tracked Werx 2K'
features over 1000 songs in their original .MOD/.XM/.IT/etc. forms, from over 3000 submitted, and is an _excellent_ guide to the best of the more recent (and still alive!) .MOD-scene, as well as some nice older tunes, although mainly from less well known artist (a lot of which
are surprisingly good!). Monotonik artists Vim!, Distance, Subi, and h0l contributed tunes, and we believe there's even an unavailable-elsewhere Vim! .MOD or
two on there. Subi gave the full info+stats for Monotonik artists on the Mono+friends yahoo group for those who are
further interested - check archived messages!
17.01.01
German website http://www.popkomm.de did a special 1 hour net.tv special featuring Monotonik+friends
alongside a few tunes from TDR, highlighting net.music.labels :) The name of the show is Digital Phlow, they played a bunch of our music alongside
handheld-cam comments by the hosts and some fun+basic video+audio cut-up mixing, and you can find a realvideo archive of
it here
(if that doesn't work, then go to the website, and search in the 'tv archiv' section for monotonik.)
Some basic times in the broadcast you'll hear Monotonik tunes:
21.30 - _ And The Secret Formula - "The Power Of _"
24.30 - Colongib - "Scopedog, Mechanical Man"
34.30 - Hoffman - "Dark Fool" (?)
43.30 - Supernao+Yolk - "Fern Pollen" (woo, going wayback!)
47.00 - Radix - "Counting Stars"
50.00 - Ramone+Trigger - "Alpha Wezen"
57.00 - Hoffman - "Deep Impact"
Also martin@popkomm.de includes his top eleven mono211.com tunes fitting in with their playlists (including one that isn't actually on the site, but feh!):
01 ...and the secret formula - the amazing power [easy listening]
02 colongib - scopedog, mechanical man [experimental d&b]
03 gianni parotta - leichte beute [acid-trance-tek]
04 hoffmann - assault systems [acid trancy triphop]
05 hoffmann - deep impact [detroit]
06 hoffmann - rewired electronics [trancy breaks ambient]
07 Kuu - Contours of Infinity [ambient d&b]
08 proem - access mike [ambient d&b]
09 radix - counting stars [fm elektro]
10 ramone+trigger - alpha wezen [ambient triphop]
11 supernao - superclear [oldskool]
thanks again to popkomm.de for all the coverage! :)
17.01.01
To help celebrate the release of the Surgery Records "Initial Release" 2xCD compilation, which features a large number of Monotonik-related artists (see down page for more info -
international distribution info coming soon!), Super Science, Thug/Tim Koch, Dubhustler from PBXO, and Jeremy Dower (Plug Research) play a live gig in Adelaide, Australia
this Saturday (20th January.) The flier with fun design + info is here, cool :)
Thug and Super Science also played out live in Melbourne earlier this month.
27.12.00
More news about Lackluster mp3 availability - because http://lackluster.stc.cx has gone down for now, we're now hosting his live set and all his
other internet-released mp3s on our mirror.support.nl server, at
ftp://mirror.support.nl/pub/mono/mp3/lackluster.. thus try here
for the Lackluster live @ Technature gig mentioned below (remember, it's 60mb!), and elsewhere in the directory for his previous Monotonik and other net.label
mp3 releases..
27.12.00
Great news about previous Monotonik-featured artist, Sense. After his truly beautiful recent tracks and a lot of interest from the online
idm community, he's been picked up by Lee Norris, aka Metamatics, for his Neo Ouija label, with a CD/LP
called 'A View From A Vulnerable Place' coming early in 2001. Joining other Neo Ouija artists like Metamatics, Geiom, previous Monotonik-releaser
Bauri and others is something to be really proud of - congratulations again, Sense! We'll tell you when the album hits stores.
24.11.00
We earlier mentioned and linked to a flyer of Lackluster's gig at Technature in Helsinki, Finland on 14/10/00. Well, thanks to Lackluster's generosity, he's made
an mp3 of his live appearance available for download! It's a rather massive 59.5meg, but if your connection can handle it, you can grab it
here, and the tracklisting, equipment list, and comments for the
gig are downloadable here. Lackluster, thou art godlike..
24.11.00
Also, us here @ Monotonik got hold of John Peel's quirky (but god-like!) comments directly after playing Vom (aka Vim!)'s "Quality Coats" track on his Radio 1 Show, and
they're mp3-ed and available here (110k), as sampled and grabbed by Vim! himself.
Incidentally, Vom is (sorta) slang for vomiting in the UK, which you've probably already guessed, hence Peelie's amusing distaste.. rock on!
07.11.00
Lackluster has a limited-edition 7" (RIKOS005) out on Finnish label Rikos Records this month, which includes
4 previously unreleased tracks, along with great sleeve-design by previous mtk.cover.artist Fthr (check it out here.)
More info, as always, can be found at the Lackluster official info-page..
07.11.00
Tim Koch, aka Thug, has a track on the recent DeFocus sampler "Two You See?" 12", alongside Esem (aka Stereoman, well-known for his releases
on Noise, you go girl!), John Tejada, Plus One, and CiM.. Oh, and mp3 samples can be found here
for all DeFocus releases to date, including previous Lackluster stuff. (As an aside, the new John Tejada material on DeFocus with Divine Styler and an opera singer is
highly recommended by us, btw!)
07.11.00
More info on recent productions from Helsinki junglists Dharma + Dice (aka Prob.) Apparently, Dice has a forthcoming 12" on Formation Records, run by DJ SS,
of course, and I believe one or other of the duo have a track on the recent "Jazz+Bass Sessions Vol.3" (also on Formation). Also, Dharma was in London recently mixing his tracks
for his group Quintessence, who have a neat-o record deal, by the sound of it.. more info when we know or are allowed to release it. And btw, I know Dharma+Dice
were once prolific releasers on mtk and no longer seem to feature, but don't worry, Prob/Dice is having some material released on Monotonik soon, with newer stuff hopefully to follow.. and if we
can ever find that neat Dharma remix of Mortimer Twang with the Algerian (?) singer on it, we'll put that out too..
07.11.00
Just recently released, and now available directly from them or via hmv.com, the Neferiu Records
sampler CD features lots of Monotonik favorites, including Willbe, Lackluster, Vexion, Frankandbill (Frank Bolero + Bill Yard), and
even Lukas Nystrand (yep, Mortimer Twang himself!). The release flips between triphop, house, idm, and d+b - neat-o, well worth a
listen.. and they have a forthcoming Sense album putatively listed too, so they have very good taste..
07.11.00
Finally, Merck Records is blazing ahead with any number of cool CDs + vinyl involving people who's released on Monotonik in the past,
as always - this time round it's worth mentioning that the md 'Appelsap' album+remixes is now out in stores, and a 12" featuring
MD, Frank Bolero, and Lackluster is due soon, plus the 'Aurora' ambient compilation including Sense, Proem, and Lackluster.. more
info at http://www.m3rck.net as per normal..
13.10.00
Full details on the 2xCD compilation from Surgery organised by Thug and featuring a whole rash of excellent artists, including several
Monotonik-related geezers. It's called "Initial Release", and the tracklisting goes as follows:
disc1
01.Aspen - 'My Music is in Your Mouth'
02.Fizzarum - 'Exivyd'
03.Lackluster - '11/11/99'
04.Duann - 'Loose Change'
05.Octopus Inc. - 'Open Tooth'
06.K-RAD - '174lemn'
07.Boulderdash - 'Casio Kid'
08.Mitchell Akiyama - 'i tride'
09.Pretty Boy Cross Over - 'Pencil Box '
10.CorneliusW - 'Discop'
11.Mr.Projectile - 'Flying Sounds'
12.Sleepy - 'Foob'
13.JetJaguar - 'Loss Apache'
disc2
01.Vim! - 'Thin Strips of You'
02.md - 'New York Middle Class'
03.Bauri - 'It Doesn't Matter'
04.Epoq - 'Snow Globe'
05.Jeremy Dower - 'dr.DX100 and the PC folk ensemble - sweet dreams'
06.Eric Skogen - 'Gosub'
07.CiM - 'Track'
08.Novel23 - 'M.L'
09.Plod - 'Boyta'
10.Super Science vs. OPC - 'Electrified the Sky'
11.K-Rad - '149idn'
12.Vim! - 'Jackie Batey'
13.Unagi Patrol - 'Party'
14.Orpheus - 'Ascend'
so, you may recognise Lackluster, Vim!, PBXO, Sleepy, Duann, md, Super Science and more from previous Monotonik releases - add to them
a whole bunch of other excellent artists like Plod, CiM, Fizzarum, Aspen, Jet Jaguar, and this quickly becomes a must-buy compilation - right? :)
It's due out in early November, and like the Super Science album (which is available now), it should be purchasable at online stockists including
Skimo, Safety In Numbers, and Synthaesthesia..
05.10.00
News and flyers on two gigs (one recent, one forthcoming) Lackluster has played out in Helsinki, Finland, his hometown. Firstly, on 29/09/00 he played supporting
the excellent Op:L Bastards at Motti in Helsinki - here's the flyer for the event. And coming
up on the 14/10/00, he'll be playing in the chill-out room at Technature, also in Helsinki - here's the
front and the back of the flyer for that event. Congrats to Esa on the first gig,
and good luck for the forthcoming one - Monotonik fans, make it a date!
05.10.00
Word from Finland is that Dharma+Dice's split 12" single on Straight Up Breakbeat is now _out in stores_. Wooo - here's the label info
if you're interested..
SUBB 001
straight up breakbeat
A Dharma - Dopenology 07.07
AA Dice - Spy 06.52
Shout outs
bluez, dj ss, dj dizzy, fintelligens, quintessence crew, risto, chris,
pinball, nenis, dj alimo, dj drummie, koe, muffler, missing link,
original breaks crew, dorado, 925 recordz, moving shadow 4 putting us
on, #jungle, all the helsinki dnb heads keeping it real...one love!
a written and produced by j. helminen
aa written and prdouced by j.niiranen
(c) straight up breakbeat recordings, finland 2000
tel +358.40.511.4471 fax +358.33.139.0071
28.09.00
Just a brief confirmation that, on one of his evening shows this week, deified British Radio 1 DJ John Peel did play out Vom (=Vim!)'s track from the Oggum Records compilation he's
been featured on. Woo - cute! He seemed to like it - but then, as mentioned in the running h0l vs. Subi joke, John Peel also loves The Fall ;)
11.09.00
A brand new CD release particular related to Monotonik+friends is Tim Koch's "Please Don't Tell Me That's Your Volvo" CD, which has just
been released on the Aural Industries label. Tim Koch is aka Thug, and helps run Surgery
Records, whom Monotonik seems to have an increasingly symbiotic relationship with of recent. In any case, the "Please Don't.." CD
includes a number of tracks previously released on Monotonik, including 'Werdan',
'Obatem By Night', and some earlier releases under the Serkul pseudonym.
Quite simply.. the CD is top-notch, so we all heartily recommend you go pick it up at Skimo about now..
11.09.00
Finally, news about the Welsh CD release with Vim! making a sneak appearance. It's from the tiny drone-rock/noise label Oggum Records
(in the style of Ochre Records, Windy and Carl, etc..), and it's a charity compilation called 'Yr Agog' (catalogue OGG10). John Peel has already been playing
out a number of the album tracks on his legendary Radio 1 show, and we'll try to tell you if he gets round to Vim!'s.. possibly more info
to follow (with full tracklisting, and online stockists, if we can find one..)
11.09.00
This was also posted on the news page, but check out this Ars Electronica report from Subi and Distance, which was updated whilst they were at the
arts festival itself. There's also a link from that page to video interviews with Subi and a little sushi+monotonik-mixing-up in video form, all mildly
diverting. thanks again to the Electrolobby crew for hosting us in Austria.. you guys rock :)
27.08.00
Wow, look mom, we're famous. :) Well, ok, not famous, but marginally less completely-unheard-of. Reasonably behemoth-like US music magazine Spin (sorta an alt.version of 'Rolling Stone', if we had to
describe it very badly), has done a little feature on Monotonik as part of their monthly net.music article, 'Sound Files', for the September 2000 issue (the one with Creed on the front, fact-fans!) Monotonik+friends even seem to get the thumbs-up, too, with Lackluster, Vim's chip-album, and Subi getting
a mention, amongst others.. Anyhow, we scanned in the offending article and dumped it here, if you're interested in seeing what
they have to say...
19.08.00
Further info on Monotonik's appearance at the Ars Electronica Festival 2000 in Linz, Austria from September 2nd-7th.
It's now confirmed that the two Monotonik artists making an appearance will be Subi (from the UK) and Distance, aka Lackluster (Finland). They'll be presenting the label,
telling the [incredulous] audience a little about .MODs and the history of tracking, and doing plenty of real-time mixing from the Mono back-catalogue. Subi has even threatened to spin some Eskimos and Egypt 12"s if we're not careful ;) The updated Electrolobby website also has
info on the exact schedule of the festival webcasting - there'll be plenty of cool things going on, looks like Monotonik
will be making an appearance on the webstreaming on Tuesday 5th September, 13.00-14.30 (CET?). Apart from this presentation and one on the first day of the festival,
Monotonik will mainly have its own area where visitors can play around with tracked music and virtual turntables/softsynths,
listen to us mixing, and generally have a whale of a time.. we're also co-hosting a workshop on 'music on the Internet' with FM4, Austrian national
radio, from 15.00-17.00 the 3rd-6th. Any Monotonik fans in the area, be sure to make it, but otherwise, watch out for the webcasting and site/mailing-list updates
to warn you about it..!
30.07.00
Seems like a shortlist for the Laurent Garnier online remix competition has been produced, and blimey, if Monotonik-related artists
or friends such as Vae, WillBe, and BStates didn't make it into the list? Check out the songs
that made it here. Unsure if all of them will be on the remix
vinyl released later this year - probably just a few of them. In which case, good luck..
30.07.00
Hoffman and his DJ partner Markus span a great set on Saturday 29th on the Leetradio
net.radio.station, starting at 22.00 BST, and kicking it for the next 4 hours with hard techno, breakbeat, and electro on 3 decks with a
Kaaospad and lotsa funky effects :) They won't be broadcasting next weekend cos they'll be attending The Big Chill, but
look at the schedule on weekends after that - we'll try to give you a heads up on this site, as we did on the
monotonik egroups list a few hours before they went online. Oh, and go to IRC channel #leet
when they're spinning next, some of the Monotonik-related characters may be around..
22.07.00
The Super Science debut album, 'Love Like Life In Miniature', has just been released in Australia via
Surgery Records, and we should have
another forthcoming Super Science mp3 release to help celebrate this - there's a launch party this weekend
with Super Science+Thug playing live, from what we understand.. Contact Surgery or stay tuned for how
to get hold of the album. We've also been contacted by Duann, the guy behind Modula, another Surgery
signing, and we'll be putting out a track from him sometime in the next few weeks..
22.07.00
Lackluster's first-ever live performance happened at the Kaaos afterhours party in Jyvaskyla, Finland,
on 15.07.00, following the main Kaaos event, which featured Jeff Mills and Jori Hulkkonen, amongst others..
Lackluster played an approx 70-minute set in the chill-out lounge, and ylikulju of Rikos Records
(and of Milk net.label fame) also played live.. we'll try to give you advance warning of any other
Lackluster live dates in the future..
22.07.00
It now seems likely that md's excellent new material, collected in the form of the "Between Gaps" album, will be released
by a new real-world label md and .d are setting up in London (md has moved there from Helsinki). More info on this as we find out, a
number of Mono-related artists
may be involved with this and other releases on it. We're very happy with this, naturally, because it means more real-world exposure
for people who so richly deserve it - can't wait for the Merck release of "Appelsap" too.. :)
20.06.00
An update on the Ars Electronica festival-appearance by Monotonik. There's now a website for the 'Electrolobby'
section featuring us here (nice to see other interesting invitees
such as memepool.com and Sissy Fight 2000.) Also check out their interview with h0l about Monotonik here.
Full details soon, but look for tracking explanations/tutorials and lots of real-time
MOD/Buzz/vinyl mix-ups at the festival, with representations from two Monotonik stalwarts (but no
h0l, sadly - scheduling issues..) But.. should be a blast! More soon..
20.06.00
Another success story for Monotonik artists, up and coming Australian label Surgery Records
are preparing a compilation which, as well as featuring Oz-tastic Mono-man Thug, will also star a track from Sleepy (aka Jiva),
and previously unreleased Vim! material - we can't wait. Also rumors of the usual suspects (Lackluster, BStates and friends) making an appearance, and it may be 2xCDs. More info as we get it.. (these are also the guys releasing the ace Super Science album, btw..)
20.06.00
More forthcoming-ness on the excellent Merck Records, and there's a page up
for the coming-before-xmas md's 'Appelsap', previously released online
with some vague semi-formed Mono-connectedness, but now getting a proper CD release with remixes on the same CD from
BrothomStates, Frank Bolero, Crankshaft (=Yolk!), and even Thug. Should be great... Check the
Merck 'Appelsap' page for realaudio previews, btw..
20.06.00
In case you're thinking we've forgotten the old Mono211 mainstays, don't worry, they're still around, just real busy
with real-life music releases. Recently, 'Drum 'N Bass Arena'
showcased the first 12" from DJ Dizzy's Finnish d+b label Straight Up Breakbeat - and it's good ol'
Dharma and Dice (=Prob) providing the goods. D+B Arena have realaudio files hosted, in fact - try Dharma's
'Dopenology' and Dice's 'Spy'
on for size.. cool.
11.06.00
More real-life record-stuff featuring Monotonik-affiliated artists, we're delighted to mention. The rather marvellous
Merck Records is coming out with the CD compilation and upcoming related-12" 'Squadron' -
go check it out, it features a Frank Bolero remix of Lackluster, a great MD track, and even something from upcoming Monotonik artist Sense. Well worth it.
Oh, and in completely
unrelated news, someone started up the Bogdan Racynski fansite, http://www.bogdanraczynski.com/ (for those who don't know,
he released stuff back in about 1997 on Mono and some other scene-labels, and has gone on to be signed to Rephlex and remix Autechre for the Warp 10 compilation, amongst other things..)
Anyhow, check out the discography section - all his Mono releases are there as mp3s, including the stuff under the Ice Climber pseudonym that you might
not have previously realised was him.. over and out.
28.05.00
As promised, here's the sound/visual skinny on the Toyota ad h0l helped soundtrack, plus the music
to go with it. You can check out the advert itself by clicking here
(4.8 meg .MPG, incidentally!) And for those interested in how the single itself sounds, two edited excerpts from Wiggle feat. h0l - "Ronin"
are available as one mp3 here (636k mp3).
The h0l-derived bits are based on an old tune called "Tubule" you may or may not recognise, with some enhancements,
btw.. but it's Wiggle who are the real tune-architects, turning it into a wonderful Japanese-Atari-Teenage-Riot-fest :)
28.05.00
More Lackluster information. After the critically acclaimed 12" and album on Focus (also known as DeFocus nowadays,
because of some name-similarity issues with another label), there comes another 12" of remixes, called
"R U Oho?" (FOC354). This includes some great remixes, including one by Lackluster himself and others
by scene-friends Bauri, BrothomStates (sometimes aka Dune), Xhale, and Sense. It's so good to see the online scene getting
represented so well on vinyl, and for a respected label, again - and whilst Bauri's already released something
on Monotonik, expect to see a forthcoming exclusive from Sense, incidentally, another brilliant Australian idm-sta. Check out Lackluster's own visual discography for more
pics/details/soundclips on his 'real-world' releases so far..
23.05.00
Monotonik has been asked to appear/perform at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria in September 2000.
This is a great honour for the label, since the festival is highlighting what they see as the most intriguing parts
of Internet and digital culture, and Monotonik as a 'virtual label' has piqued their attention, apparently. Check out their website
at http://web.aec.at/festival2000/ for more information - they also present a yearly arts prize, some of the awards
of which have gone to Gescom, Chris Cunningham and Aphex Twin in recent years. We're as yet unsure that we'll actually
appear, due to some scheduling problems, but look for further information in the coming weeks/months, we'll try to make it if we possibly can.. whatever
happens we'll appear in the festival's print brochure, made by Springer-Verlag.
07.05.00
Cool news regarding h0l's collaboration with Japanese band Wiggle (the only music he's composed since giving up in about 1996..) An adapted version of the track he worked on with them has found its way onto a Toyota TV advert in Japan (!), and also as the lead-off title track on Wiggle's new single, "Ronin", released on Kitty/Universal (KTCM1174) in Japan only. Other collaborators on the single include long-time Wiggle cohort Ken Ishii, and even better, the
Toyota advert has ninjas in it :) A little page with scans/mp3s and a .mpg of the advert itself should find its way online sometime in the next few weeks..
02.05.00
Apologies for lack of updates, go check out the Lackluster page for more
info on the Lackluster album, "Container" (FOC350), which is being well-received worldwide on CD and vinyl via Focus. More soon..
21.02.00
The Lackluster 12" EP is the first proper release
for the Focus label, run from London
by Clair (ex. Clear Records). It features some tracks previously released
on Monotonik, and we're fine with Focus putting them out - Lackluster deserves to be famouser than
a famous thing!
Press release goes like this:
Lackluster- "Untitled" FOC349 - release date: 27/3/00
A. .sundial jam (suntrap mix by tomas szepe) (1999), .ix pen (1997)
B. .cull streak (1999), .meanwhile (1998)
After such a good response from everyone about the Lackluster
track on the Focus sampler, we have decided to bring the release date
of
Esa Ruoho's album and single forward. This four track 12" has taken
one
one track 'cull streak' from the forthcoming album that will be released
in March 2000.
Esa Ruoho is a 20 year old who lives in eastern Helsinki where
the temperature is currently -20c. He is a self-confessed lazy bum,
who
whilst on Finnish national service has managed to write some of the
most
beautiful warming music around.
Lackluster material has only been released through the Monotonik
label where they only pressed 100 cdr's and sold them to people on what
is known as a 'demo scene'. A few tracks have been taken from that cdr
release and have been put together with his latest creations to bring
you what Grooves magazine have called "the ambient side of Autechre".
They go on to call Esa an "electronic genius" but personally we just
feel he is trying to keep warm.
21.02.00
Monotonik has got mentioned in a nice way + used
for a subject for an editorial on the online magazine Pond Life, part of Smallfish, www.smallfish.co.uk
- go check the full article out in the
'word' section of Issue 6.. anyhow, here's an excerpt from the thing:
"Out of [the demo scene] has arisen a number of internet only labels
– releasing tracks on
their various
websites for free. The advantage of online labels such as these is the
minimal costs
it takes to run – all that is required is server space to store both
the
audio files and the web-site. So labels such as Mono 211/Monotonik
(www.mono211.com) can release pretty much what they want, when they
want it.
Received a hot new demo? It can be up on the site and available for
download
within an hour. Compare this to a regular record label which would take
the
best part of six months from receiving a demo to putting out a release
– and
of course uploading a track over modem is a wee bit cheaper than cutting
the
tests, the promos and the fully artworked release copies of a CD or
LP."
21.02.00
The Focus 12" sampler EP including a Lackluster track
formerly released on Monotonik is
now available in your best-quality record stores worldwide, kidz. Here's
the press release:
"Focus 'Sampler' is exactly what it says on the label a preview of what's
to come. This five track EP has
taken only the first five artists from the already year-long release
schedule. Set up by Clair after
the fall of Clear in 1998, Focus is set to carry on where Clear left
off. Lackluster (Esa Ruoho) has previously
released his music with Monotonik, a purely web based label selling
CDR's only. Esa has been part of the Finnish
demo scene for many years. Focus has decided to bring Lackluster into
the real world..." [other artists - Aphelion, Plus One, CiM, Mystery...]
Good luck, Esa,
you rule totally!
19.12.99
WAY too much news to catch up on, but here goes -
firstly, h0l finally got a copy of the
Japanese 12" vinyl he co-remixed (based on one of his old chip-tunes,
MAJORLY altered, fact-fans.)
It's Sorrow - "My Name Is Sorrow - Wiggle Remix" (Wiggle
are the band he collaborated on
it with in Tokyo earlier this year), and it's MHR-1001 on Mission Hill
Records, via Miracle Hit. Wiggle
have also collaborated with Ken Ishii and Christian Vogel and have remixed
the "Tekken 3" soundtrack.
19.12.99
great news for Lackluster - he's been signed for
a 12"/album deal with Focus, the new label
from one of the people behind Clear, the label that brought us releases
from Gescom and Jedi Knights, amongst others. Also on the label is Plus
One, a Plaid-produced act, and a bunch of other cool idm-ers Well done,
Esa, you deserve it! A sampler EP with tracks from all the artists on
Focus is out in January.
19.12.99
Vim! round-up - none of his tracks made it onto the
final version of "Music 2000" in the end,
but the product (also called "MTV Music Generator" in the States) is
just about out and doing well on PSX! And unsurprisingly (cos he's a
goddamned genius!) Vimsta is getting label interest - looks like he
may have a new track on a compilation which'll include people like Flying
Saucer Attack - whoa! More info as we get it!
19.12.99
the ever-so-secret-as-to-who-did-it Vinyl Matt track
"From The Education" got a review in the
new mp3 section of the German paper-magazine De-Bug,
and this is what they had to say.....
"Winter comes. Time to look back sentimentally and for slabs of melancholy.
This track wants to be classic trip hop - despite the negative connotations
to this term. And it's got all the things that trip hop needs:
vinyl noise, a slow hiphop beat, and a string sample, whose dramatism
even Portishead with a 70-person orchestra couldn't beat. "From The Education"
is a very appealing track, although the production quality
is quite high for the former lo-fi fetishists at mono211." - 5 dots
outta 5! Well done, Matt!
19.12.99
a couple of months back Austrian national radio,
fm4, played an entire HOUR of mono211/tonik
tracks! Playlist
went as follows: Mortimer Twang - All times by Music, Thug - Obatem
by Night, Vim - Call Me Persephone
Ramone & Trigger - Alpha Wezen, Vinyl Matt - From the Education, Mortimer
Twang - Hungary Street (Substance Remix)
Vim - Tea Diddums, Dharma - Dance to the Drummer’s Beat, Vim - Whirlwind
Snooker, Mortimer Twang - Born 2louse
Linus - Haze, Vim - C Bunches, Mortimer Twang - Theme, Linus - Le Fonque
- thanks to Stefan!
09.09.99
the wicked Slovenian site Elektroblef
has a number of its radio shows (previously
played on Slovenian student airwaves) online. Amongst the listenable/downloadable
sets online
are an ambient
mix featuring several Monotonik tracks, a Five
Musicians mix with almost all
md tracks (the Monotonik artist with a forthcoming CD release), and
even an AMAZING hour
(with GREAT mixing, scratching, and presenters!) of a Mono211/Monotonik
show. Wow!
21.08.99
Loud Factory,
the increasingly famous Internet radio station, is displaying a Mono211
logo prominently on its mainpage,
and plays out tunes by everyone from Subi to Dharma.. cool!
21.08.99
Hotwire, the mp3 cover-artist for most of our releases,
has a design credit
on the art for the new DJ Scissorkicks album on Fused and Bruised (artist website with
info at http://www.achap.demon.co.uk/sciss..)
DJ Scissorkicks is a cool London breakbeat
DJ who was in Collapsed Lung ("Eat My Goal") and now produces great
tunes as well
as DJ-ing, and remixing artists like The Freestylers, Shut Up And Dance,
and even Bis..!
07.08.99
Dharma+Dice's "Soul Warrior" is getting into people's
Top 10's at Drum+Bass Arena,
and apparently Rob Playford started a recent set in New York with the
track. You go guys!
07.08.99
looks like Vim! will be contributing a track to a
Saundart CD compilation to
be released later this year, alongside an idmallstarz line-up.. more
info when we get it.
07.08.99
h0l and Vim! have been doing some beta-testing for
the forthcoming
Playstation music 'tracker' "Music2000", the sequel to the recently released "Music"
from Jester Interactive/Codemasters.
There may also be some tunes from m211 artists
released with the final version of the CD.. stay tuned for more details!
18.07.99
more news on the Dharma+Dice Audio Couture release.
Full info as
follows - it's AC#34, the tracks are "Streetsounds" and "Soul Warrior",
and
there are realaudio clips available here
right now, courtesy of the Drum+Bass
Arena - they also list the release date as 23rd August. Oh, for when
the D+B Arena
index-page gets updated, here's the direct links - Streetsounds,
Soulwarrior..
11.07.99
Ramone has recently finished his album for Firehorse
Recordings in
Hamburg, Germany, and it should be out a little later this year. For
those
interested, there's previously been a vinyl release for "Crazy Juice"
(fire003),
and, ahem, Ramone's recently been doing soundtracks for porno movies
too.
Mm, bet there's not much call for Rakim samples in those? :) More info
soon...
15.06.99
Even h0l, the notorious non-musician of recent, is
getting in on
the releasing thing. When he was in Tokyo recently he collaborated with
the
guys from Wiggle on a remix
of Kaori Kawamura's 'Sorrow' - it'll be out on
Mission Hill/Miracle Hit on vinyl in Japan only in the next coupla months.
Wowee.
14.06.99
Prob. and Dharma have signed a contract with Moving
Shadow, the
rathercool d+b recordlabel. Expect a single out on its sublabel, Audio
Couture,
sometime in the next two months - dubplates are out in the next week
or two!
12.06.99
Substance, as one half of Samuel and Nasley, supported E-Z Rollers when
they played live in Helsinki about six weeks ago. The setup was a full
7-piece band,
including live drums, bass, and so on.. hopefully we can hear some excerpts
here soon.
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