Customer Reviews

Silence

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

 

 

Cold, desolate, ominous, and industrial, Silence, the latest by Monolake invokes a sense of being alone or, at best, an outsider in a foreign realm. The clinking and clanging of metal, the whipping winds, the dripping water, the pounding all seem better related to a group of malevolent machines than a human. The noises present in the music, not from nature or the traditional comforts of the personal norm mean less ability to immediately relate. This does not mean, however, that it is by any means irrelevant. In fact, the album takes a journey in to the mind where the loneliness, fear, doubt, and confusion lurks. The strangeness soon becomes something with which the listener can identify.

Anecdotally, the album progresses in the following manner: I am alone in an unfamiliar place in an environment that I soon find intimidating. I run for what seems like forever only to journey further in to this unfamiliar and frightening world. I find quick respite in "Void" and gain new hope. As I continue it seems my efforts to escape the environment futile and I regress to my original state, realizing, yet not coming to terms with the inability to connect and the possibility of living only within my own conscious.

One problem I have with the album is a lack of variety. I am biased in the sense that I love variation and variety, but there is a thin line between having an overall theme in an album and creating multiple pieces that sound too similar. It is in that regard that the album loses stock and loses its ability to be enjoyed multiple times. Certain songs, such as "Void" which is a refreshing refrain from the other darker tracks and "Internal Clock" and "Shutdown" shake things up a bit. Aside from those, only the most discerning ear can distinguish between some of the tracks. In this way at points the album listened to as a whole seems less like a journey and more like stagnant progress, which could very well be the point but does not work personally for me.

Another issue that I have with the album is the overall lack of change in frequency of sounds. Most songs are comprised of lower, metallic, and flatter sounds, although it is not always the case. This technique is good for the industrial sound of the music and granted the sounds used often go well with the mood of the album, but personally it does not create music that is aurally pleasing.

Overall, the album is well- made; it is dark and strange, almost threatening at times. It definitely warrants a level of introspection from the listener, one that I assume for most would not be pleasing unless the unknown and a journey in to the more lonesome depths of your brain is something you relish. Silence does have an excellently crafted theme which leads to the thoughts of the listener, but that is partially its downfall; more variety could create a more dynamic journey. If I could change this album I would cut a few of the redundant songs to add some variety, and possibly add some more unique aspects to others. Ultimately, Silence offers a unique experience throughout the album, but it is one for which the listener needs to be prepared.

It goes like this. I wake up in my abandoned shelter made of found brick and metal scraps. It's been raining for over a month now. But the water collecting in the corners is undrinkable. It is full of ash and oily fluid. There is only one way out of here. I step outside into the eternal darkness, and climb the nearby unrecognizable object. Far ahead is a column of rising smoke. The electrical storm rolls in the distance. I start walking towards the echo of a machine made rhythm. I feel sad for our abandoned planet. And I don't have any hope for survival. The liner notes of Monolake's seventh album, Silence, tell a different story. But in my mind, there is my own. Either way - the story is futuristic, full of tension, survival, and hope. The words are reflected in music, composed by Robert Henke during the last year leading up to September 2009. Henke's staple sound has created a whole new branch of style springing off of minimal techno. This metallic, atonal, and rhythm driven mathematical progression captures your nerve endings, and sparks through your cells. The cavernous area of your head that was once possessed by thought is now a plausible site for transmission. On Silence, Henke moves further away from the four-to-the-floor pounding beat towards a dark, and groovy rolling pattern, that must be heavily influenced by dubstep. That's not a surprise, considering that Monolake's new partner in crime, Torsten Pröfrock, has recently bridged the gap between dubstep and techno by remixing Shackleton's Death Is Not Final as T++. The influence is contagious. And in this chain reaction Henke creates his own style. And the production? It's pristine! I fought the following thought for a while, and finally decided to break down and directly quote the first part of production notes: Sound sources include field recordings of airport announcements, hammering on metal plates at the former Kabelwerk Oberspree, Berlin, several sounds captured inside the large radio antenna dome at Teufelsberg, Berlin, dripping water at the Botanical Garden Florence, air condition systems and turbines in Las Vegas, Frankfurt and Tokyo, walking on rocks in Joshua Tree National Park, wind from the Grand Canyon, a friends answering machine, a printer, conversations via mobile phones, typing on an old Macintosh keyboard and recordings from tunnel works in Switzerland. Synthetic sounds created with the software instruments Operator, Tension, Analog and the build in effects inside Ableton Live. Additional sound design and sequencing using MAXMSP / MaxForLive. Additional reverb: various impulse repsonses via Altiverb. Composed, edited and mixed in Live with a pair of Genelec 8040s. Mastering by Rashad Becker at Audioanwendungen September 2009. Field recordings captured with a Sony PCM D-50. I'm not going to waste your time here, and tell you about Henke's contribution towards the evolution of sound on more than one physical plane - you can read all about contributions towards Ableton or his own designed midi-controller Monodeck on Wikipedia. What I want to capture here is how this album made me feel. And that indescribable feeling is pretty close to what I felt for the first time when I heard Plastikman's Sheet One back in 1993. Since then I've been jonesing for more. And Henke has finally hit that spot. His Silence is the answer. Silence is released on Monolake's own label - [ml/i] (Monolake / Imbalance Computer Music), and is available in CD, digital, and 2xLP formats. This release follows Monolake's recent two track EP, Atlas / Titan which was in turn remixed by T++. There is also a 60-minute single track, endlessly permutating atmospheric installation piece released by Robert Henke this summer, titled Indigo_Transform (Imbalance Computer Music, 2009).

best ambient drone music i have heard this year. great stuff just sit back and chill