Black Monk Time [Extra tracks]

Monks | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 14, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 1966
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks
• Label: LIGHT IN THE ATTIC
• ASIN: B001Q8FRNA
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #30,362 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Digitally remastered and expanded reissue of this 1966 Garage Rock classic including six bonus tracks. Today, Garage, Psych, and Punk are three overused words to say the least. They're dropped from every direction to brand, market, and sell, but looking back to the mid-1960s, there was only one group of musical mavericks that clearly defined them. The Monks were five beat playing American GIs stationed in Germany who, after their discharge, decided to stay and continue their musical mission. Meeting up with a team of local managers, they transformed themselves and their sound into a holy racket like the world had never known. This five-person order literally birthed the above genres through a fuzz-drenched evolution of sound, bursting with social commentary and future primitive rhythms. Black Monk Time is their mind-boggling debut album, and is far more popular today than it ever has been. Forget what you've heard about them because now it's time to actually hear them! Light In The Attic. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars paint-shaker banjos and laser-gun organs, September 12, 2002

By 

Clare Quilty (a little pad in hawaii) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Monk Time (Audio CD)

Somebody -- I can't remember who, and I don't know why -- but somebody gave me the Monks collection, "Five Upstart Americans" and I listened to it a lot and really liked it. They sound like a garage band, y'know, that does a little surf music, does a few songs about girls, probably wouldn't have looked out of place appearing in "Pop Gear"....

And I like it all right, and started looking into what other tunes I could get by the band. At the time, they only had one other disk out, "Black Monk Time," so I ordered it.

When it came, I looked at the songs and -- damn -- the songs were almost all the same as on "Five Upstart Americans." I was, like, "Shoot, these are just different versions of the same songs."

But I got home from work and put in the CD anyway, plopped my headphones on and thought, "I hope it's at least marginally different...."

And then it kicked in.

Bang!

You know that scene in movies where everybody's at the hop and nobody wants to dance and somebody puts a record on and all of a sudden everybody springs into action?

That's what this was like. I literally sat straight up in my La-Z-Boy and dropped my jaw. My legs, involuntarily, began to do what I believe is the Jitterbug and my hands reached toward the ceiling, trembling going "amen."

Yeah, these are the same songs, but here they're re-worked, streamlined, and gassed up full of juice. The banjo sounds like a paint shaker and the organ sounds like a precision laser. Trust me, that's a good thing. It may not sound like it. But it's a Good Thing.

And years later, this is one of those albums that I drag out every few months and listen to, I can't get away from it and wouldn't if I could. This music puts chase sequences and "Endless Summer"-esque surf footage directly into your brain.

Get this CD, even though you can't listen to snippets of it. Get it, even though you probably never heard of the Monks. Get it. Get it, and maybe someday, everybody will know who the Monks are.

51 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I like, November 13, 2002

By 

Erroneous "Paul" (The radio wasteland of the Midwest) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Monk Time (Audio CD)

Drum goes PUM. Amplified banjo goes JNK. PUM JNK PUM JNK PUM JNK. Aaaaaaaaah! It's BLACK MONK TIME all DAY and all NIGHT. Neighbors disagree, so I turn up volume. Police come. I don't care. I pay fine. Police leave. BLACK MONK TIME again!

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DEAR AMAZON, September 2, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Black Monk Time (Audio CD)

Will you please post the sound clips of this album? People will buy it if they can just hear it!!!!