Customer Reviews

Momentum

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Gravity" used to be my favorite album by Monolake, but now Momentum adds some competition to the table. This album epitomizes what dark IDM and dub music should be. Momentum somehow encompasses many styles within this genre (from glitch to minimal dub) and still sounds like one coherent work. So many artists flake out or sell out as they get further down their career path... Monolake still stands strong, reinventing their approach, but maintaining their style. This is an essential piece of work don't miss out.

If you happen to be an experienced listener with electronic music then you should by no means miss out on this album. "Momentum" could very well be this year's top release. Monolake, not only take themselves one step further musically from their previous efforts, but they offer an electropsychedelia epic hard to find parallels with.

Monolake have up to now indulged in minimal techno. This, they've always enriched with curious effects, feedback back noise and other trickery which has given them an identity in their sound. Another characteristic element of theirs has been the darkness in the music of their albums.
It is exactly that darkness that has ripened to pure doominess in "Momentum" and makes it stand out from the pile. Sometimes in music (unlike in other things in life) it seems that the sum is different from its parts. The overall atmosphere in this album is very intense. It drifts out to psychedelia and allthough lyrics are absent (it's all instrumental) it speaks to you and the message is -i would think- unmistakable.
In general, the recipe for Monolake has remained the same, minimal techno and effects, but paradoxically, it sometimes comes across as more bombastic and the effects are more intensive.
In a time where the electronic scene is taking music as a whole ahead as it explores new soundscapes, Monolake are a proposition that defines this convincingly. And, in a year, with exceptional electronic releases (Nersoton, Halsolium, Cinematic Orchestra to name but a very few) Monolake are at the very top of the pack.

If your experience in electronic music has been up to now limited or confined to the mainstream (Moby, Massive Attack etc) this album might be a bit inaccessible or -more precisely- "difficult" to listen to. But if you wish to discover a new sound repertoire for your ears "Momentum" would be an ideal start.

Some of this sleek, dark electronic group's most finely craft, diversely tracked output embraces the cold, subtle undercurrents of robotic synapses while maintaining a buoyant, danceable flow, yet never feeling overbearing on either end. Monolake's signature city-at-night, pulsating-addicted, melodically-minimal sound can clearly be heard throughout previous albums as well as on Momentum. But on the pair's most ambitious release to that point, we still have nine tracks offering the most distinguished cultivation of their particular brand of digital intoxication yet found.

True to the album title, MOMENTUM propulses Monolake further as exemplars of what techno can be. The opening track, "Cern," already combines a driving rhythm with some deep and dark textures, while "Linear" is as alinear as you can get, delving into abstraction. "Tetris" is similarly challenging. And though the beats are heavy through many of the tracks ("Atomium" and "Stratosphere" are a good examples), it's also leavened by the ambient influences of "White_II." The melodics of "Excentric" add a beautiful atmosphere to the track, augmented by the chittering percussion laying on top. But, for my money, the dense and shadowy sonics of "Reminiscence" stand out most prominently. "Credit" takes the album out on pure ambience -- but what a journey it's been.

If you're new to Monolake, this is the one you want. I'm sure many fans prefer their Monolake more downtempo and dubby than this, and to be fair that's how I first encountered it. But the essence of this stuff is spaced-out minimal techno, and that's what you get here - a full spectrum of clicks, washes, clangs, echoes, whispers, thuds, every beat and effect timed and tweaked to perfection. Other Monolake records work as aural narcotics; this one seems like a whole world you could walk into (if you didn't mind getting hopelessly lost, that is). No one else has come near to achieving what Robert Henke has done in this genre.

A great cd if you're into getting into another zone, motionless on your couch, eyes closed, convincing yourself that there IS a Matrix and you're in it!