Tag: Monotonik

Phasmid – Petting Zoo EP {mtk064}

Artist: Phasmid
Title: Petting Zoo EP
Label: Monotonik
Catalog #: mtk064
Release Date: 2001/10/29

For some reason, we sat on the demos Phasmid sent us for a few months. Then we listened again and smacked ourselves upside the head for not putting out the US idm-er’s material, like, _immediately_. Why? It’s the missing link Monotonik may have been needing, a bridge between laid-back traditional melodics and something a little more unconventional and new.

So, welcome to Phasmid’s skewed world-view courtesy of “Heroine Of Goat Bells”, all Plone-ish weird instruments and out-there multi-tracked melodies, moving on to “The Smallest Ghosts”, which encompasses subtle klangs, crashes, and childlike leads, whilst “Cheeky50” finishes off in crazily mechanical style, all whistles, rattles, and wheezes. Gotta love the Phasmid style.

Credits:
cover by rents

Tracklist:
01 – The Heroine Of Goat Bells
02 – The Smallest Ghosts
03 – Cheeky50

Artwork:
Front Cover

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License:
Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial 1.0 Generic (CC BY-ND-NC 1.0)

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Hoffman – Unreal 2001 {mtw025}

Artist: Hoffman
Title: Unreal 2001
Label: Mono211
Catalog #: mtw025
Release Date: 2001/10/09

It’s been 10 years (at least) since Hoffman, aka Dreamfish, aka Hydlide, was hanging out on the UK Amiga .MOD scene with h0l, Subi, Twilight, and a whole bunch of the other Mono founders. It’s been 5 years since the first ever release on Mono was a remix of “Time Slip” by Hoffman. It’s been 4 years since the release of the original “Unreal” .MOD (grab here), a truly kickin piece of supa.loop.led d+b action on Mono211.

And now, the present day, whereby the still.got.it Hoffman gives us “Unreal 2001”, a radically gorgeous break-filled reworking of his ’97 .MOD classic. Nine minutes of madness later, you’ll see why we wanna be releasing stuff by Hoffman in another ten years. God, did we mention we feel really old about now? We’re going for a little sitdown whilst you witness the smartness of the music doing the talking. Yum. Yum. Yum.

Credits:
cover by rents

Tracklist:
01 – Unreal 2001

Artwork:
Front Cover

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License:
Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial 1.0 Generic (CC BY-ND-NC 1.0)

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AY88 – Console-Related Depression EP {mtk063}

Artist: AY88
Title: Console-Related Depression EP
Label: Monotonik
Catalog #: mtk063
Release Date: 2001/10/02

Continuing our interest in where the crunchy retro of videogame music meets the now and future of life away from your Nintendo, the mysterious AY88 (no name, no packdrill) delves deep into the innards of his primitive sound creation devices, and comes up with the exquisite tangent of “Console-Related Depression”.

Thus, whilst the first part of the EP bounces solid analog bass with metronome-style backing and gorgeously smooth arpegiating to infinity in an almost .SID style, the second track really cuts up the drums to a shuffle and showcases more of the “L.E.D Storm”-ish cosmic arpeggios, and the final part blends cheeky leadsynth action with echo after echo.

All in all, it’s almost as much euphoria as we’d have if the Konix Multisystem had actually got released, and as such, it’s a result, a definite result, mon ami.

Credits:
cover by AY88

Tracklist:
01 – Console-Related Depression V1
02 – Console-Related Depression V2
03 – Console-Related Depression V3

Artwork:
Front Cover

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License:
Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial 1.0 Generic (CC BY-ND-NC 1.0)

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Mistress Nine – State Of Anxiety {mrv004}

Artist: Mistress Nine
Title: State Of Anxiety
Label: monoRAVEik
Catalog #: mrv004
Release Date: 2001/09/22

There’s nothing like a little monoRAVEik action to mash the place up a little, and surprisingly enough, this time it’s from a newcomer, Mistress Nine, busting out the proto-breakbeat moves so smoothly, you’d believe it was the lord Subi himself at the keys.

You might know Mistress Nine as one of the leading lights in the DJ scene at ‘The Village’, Portmeiron’s own special gated community. It’s fortunate for us that she managed to get this mp3 unimprisoned, and we’re now able to enjoy the blend of breathy vocals, crunching beats, and rasping analog synths. What with Public Domain shooting back up the charts in the UK, is it time for monoRAVEik to enjoy a critical renaissance? We think so, but then, we’re still Acen fans at heart.

Credits:
cover by subi

Tracklist:
01 – State Of Anxiety

Artwork:
Front Cover

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Aereal – Transitions EP {mtk062}

Artist: Aereal
Title: Transitions EP
Label: Monotonik
Catalog #: mtk062
Release Date: 2001/09/22

We’re very pleased to follow up our initial release from UK-based idm-er Aereal with this contemplatively complex, wonderfully circumspect 2-track EP which we’re convinced cements his reputation as the best artist you’ve never heard of. Something we hope we’ll change.

The EP leads off with “Bacurex”, a tour de force of understated, melodically dense electronics in the tradition of the best B12 or Black Dog releases. And “Metro Cammell”, the second track, stuns further, with percussion looping down like shooting stars and melodies soaring up like rockets – and when the song breaks down and gets all ambientribal, the listener soars too.

Monotonik is proud to have been associated, if only peripherally, with the rebirth of the early 90s ‘Artificial Intelligence’ vibe through labels like DeFocus and Neo-Ouija, and here’s another prime example. It’s music that makes you feel real. Good.

Credits:
cover by rents

Tracklist:
01 – Bacurex
02 – Metro Cammell

Artwork:
Front Cover

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License:
Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial 1.0 Generic (CC BY-ND-NC 1.0)

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Proswell – 0EO {mtk061}

Artist: Proswell
Title: 0EO
Label: Monotonik
Catalog #: mtk061
Release Date: 2001/09/12

Though we’ve admired his work on the net.label Inpuj, plus current/forthcoming real.life releases on Merck and Saundart, we haven’t had a chance to put out anything from US idm.artist Proswell.. until now, that is.

But “0EO”, possibly named after a certain chip-tune related tracker-based command which you can hear used on the track, is a really enchanting piece of intelligently puttering idm-ness, again, sorta indescribable in its multiple layering and soaring subtle sounds, but a little reminiscent of the most delicate, sweetest artists around – Isan, Mum, BoC?

And when everything kicks in, “0EO” is like a slumber-filled tint on the kind of euphoria you got when you watched and listened to “Music Sounds Better With You”, seeing a kid launching a glider off a grassy hill in the hazy summer heat, the beats looping and quietly endorphin-rushing over and over. Significantly, slinkily.. yum.

Credits:
cover by rents

Tracklist:
01 – 0EO

Artwork:
Front Cover

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License:
Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial 1.0 Generic (CC BY-ND-NC 1.0)

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DJ Fish Finger – Gone Fishin’ EP {mtw024}

Artist: DJ Fish Finger
Title: Gone Fishin’ EP
Label: Mono211
Catalog #: mtw024
Release Date: 2001/08/22

There’s a lake at the bottom of Tim Koch’s (DeFocus artist + Surgery ‘label-boss’) garden. And one day, when Tim was down there trawling for VST plug-ins, he found DJ Fish Finger, wedged under a big rock. [Oddly, DJ Fish Finger is also the shape, size and consistency of a fishfinger, which makes DJ-ing out surprisingly problematic, especially in frozen food stores.]

This discovery turned out to be fortuitous, however, because whilst DJ Fish Finger was stuck there, he had been working on a 6-track EP of tunes utilising everything from weird jazz records to ethnic weird-oness, with a little moaning and Japanese people passing gas sneaked in too (think Mr.Scruff, but more looptastic?), and he passed them onto Tim. Who passed them onto us. And now we’re passing them onto you. Weirdly karmic, isn’t it?

Credits:
cover by tim koch

Tracklist:
01 – Dad’s Organ
02 – Herbie’s Harmpits
03 – Choose Your Opponent
04 – Fishing Without Conviction
05 – Tiffanies Tuna Farm
06 – The End

Artwork:
Front Cover

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License:
Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial 1.0 Generic (CC BY-ND-NC 1.0)

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Virt – FX EP {mtk060}

Artist: Virt
Title: FX EP
Label: Monotonik
Catalog #: mtk060
Release Date: 2001/08/14

It’s not often that we rave so much about an artist that our eyes come clean out of their sockets and roll around at cheek level ’til we squidge them back in again. But in this case, we reckon the permanent vision degradation is worth it just to alert the world to Virt’s presence.

So, Virt, aka Jake Kaufman, is a US-based .MOD tracker and video-game composer with many Nintendo Gameboy and Gameboy Advance credits up the wazoo (including “Q-Bert” and “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”, niiice.) And we’re pretty sure he’s the Rob Hubbard of the ’00s. No, seriously.

Concrete proof of this is denoted by the issuance of the 6-track ‘fx EP’ on Monotonik, both as the original .S3M format (slight playback imperfections on WinAmp and some other players!) and as .MP3s (for perfect playback, whatever the weather!) So, to quote from Virt’s own nfo-file for this release:

‘these tunes are all part of a single imaginary game. picture castlevania meets gargoyle’s quest to explain the baroque/cockrock hybrid.’

So, taking influences from classic game soundtracks, Virt has sorta ‘faked’ the NES sound engine on a PC to create these amazing tributes to oldskool game-music. So, whether it’s the ornate arpegiating of “Good Morning, Dracula”, the deeply funky bass permeating “Waow”, or the amazing breakdowns in “Bzam”, you know you’re into something out of this world.

[And as for the bonus track, “Classical Favorites 2”, with the cheeky pause/unpause action and staggeringly complex instrument- programming under supa-extreme limitations – well, don’t even get us started. It’s yummy in our tummies, yet again.]

Credits:
cover by rents

Tracklist:
01 – Good Morning, Dracula [S3M] [MP3]
02 – Bewm [S3M] [MP3]
03 – Waow [S3M] [MP3]
04 – Bzam [S3M] [MP3]
05 – Zzap [S3M] [MP3]
06 – Classical Favorites 2 [S3M] [MP3]

Artwork:
Front Cover

Additional Files:
v-fx [NFO]

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License:
Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial 1.0 Generic (CC BY-ND-NC 1.0)

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Ramone – Unreleased Works Part 1 – The Fistful Of Dojo And SuperSIDekick Sessions {mtw023}

Artist: Ramone
Title: Unreleased Works Part 1 – The Fistful Of Dojo And SuperSIDekick Sessions
Label: Mono211
Catalog #: mtw023
Release Date: 2001/08/06

After the unexpected and tragic loss of Andi Horvath, aka Ramone/Mono, of a sudden heart failure in June (tribute page here), we at Monotonik+friends were contacted by his friends at Fruitz Of Dojo (the Mac demo-scene group he was a member of) with a number of great unreleased Ramone .XM tracks which had been composed, in the months before he passed away, for both a demo (‘Fistful Of Dojo’) and a ‘chip’ music-disc (‘SuperSIDekick Sessions’).

So, we’re proud to present these 16 unreleased .XM tracks, totalling 1.3meg in .ZIP form, as the first part of Andi’s musical legacy (the second, upcoming installment is his unreleased 1998 full-length album, originally done for Germany’s Firehorse Records.)

The release is divided into two parts, with the 3 tracks for the ‘Fistful Of Dojo’ demo (preview screenshots here and here) encompassing intense funk through super-hard shaolin hiphopjungle action, and the remaining chip-tunes from the ‘SuperSIDekick Sessions’ (preview screenshots here, here and here) doing wonderful chipped-up funky action with electro-hiphop influences, all in under 30k per track. It’s spectacularly vibrant stuff, and makes us all happy and kinda melancholy at the same time – when all is said and done, your music rocks, and always will, Andi.

Credits:
cover by rents

Tracklist:
01 – Shadowbox [XM] [FLAC] [MP3]
02 – Db [XM] [FLAC] [MP3]
03 – Dojo Funksta [XM] [FLAC] [MP3]
04 – Screw Driver [XM] [FLAC] [MP3]
05 – Full Fuel – Rewind [XM] [FLAC] [MP3]
06 – Armalvte 2001 [XM] [FLAC] [MP3]
07 – Breakerz Revenge [XM] [FLAC] [MP3]
08 – Dojo In Slomo [XM] [FLAC] [MP3]
09 – Milky Wa(y) – Tek Rain Rewind [XM] [FLAC] [MP3]
10 – Doj’omatic Red [XM] [FLAC] [MP3]
11 – Dojo Skeme Theme [XM] [FLAC] [MP3]
12 – Rain Of The Tek [XM] [FLAC] [MP3]
13 – Miami Vice 2001 [XM] [FLAC] [MP3]
14 – Flowing Like Liquid [XM] [FLAC] [MP3]
15 – Intro [XM] [FLAC] [MP3]
16 – Crystal [XM] [FLAC] [MP3]

Artwork:
Front Cover

Original
FLAC
MP3

*FLAC & MP3 zips also include the original versions.

License:
Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial 1.0 Generic (CC BY-ND-NC 1.0)

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Idmonster – My Human Side {mtk059}

Artist: Idmonster
Title: My Human Side
Label: Monotonik
Catalog #: mtk059
Release Date: 2001/07/29

The second mtk.release (third release over both mtk and m211!) for UK-based Pendle, aka Idmonster, and his output seems to just keep getting better. After his previous Idmonster track we put out, ‘The Force May Be With You’, attracted attention from the verycool Neo-Ouija (Lee Metamatics/Norken’s label!), we’re pleased to note that track’ll be on the “Cottage Industries 2” compilation with Funckarma, Novel23, EU and more, wheeee.

Anyhow, “My Human Side” is Idmonster’s new track for us, and it’s another dense, lush, humansided piece of electronic listening music, with a curiously pulsing bassdrum leading into all manner of gorgeously fluctuating accompaniment, and finally to a sorta indecipherably vocoded lead-line whichrocks the track like Mr.Roboto stuck in a clockwork toy factory making lush stuffed fluffy clouds for  hanging out in limbo with flying monkey sheep. Or are we just stating the obvious?

Credits:
cover by rents – ROCKS 🙂

Tracklist:
01 – My Human Side

Artwork:
Front Cover

Download

License:
Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial 1.0 Generic (CC BY-ND-NC 1.0)

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