In his classic novel Neuromancer, William Gibson’s description of the sounds of the future included a hefty dose of dub. It is remarkable how, almost 30 years later, good dub and its various offspring still manage to sound like they’ve landed from another time to beckon us forward. Sydney’s Monk Fly certainly falls into this category and his latest 12″ is really quite excellent.
In spite of its title, these five tracks don’t float by in a cloud of smoke induced haze. The sounds punch, demand attention and then hold it effortlessly. Sometimes the rhythms are dead straight, but have a bite in their timbre which endow them with great authority. At other times, it’s obvious that Monk Fly has been paying close attention in dubstep class, his syncopations and sub-bass growls circle menacingly. There is a subtle use of filtering throughout the tracks to create tonal variety and he gets the balance between repetition and change just perfect to keep each piece both entrancing yet always moving forward. Traditional dub instrumentation is apparent – melodicas delayed into infinity, two note bass riffs, triplet hi-hats. But odd sounds are also successfully entwined – I’m sure they’re sitar samples in ‘Dub Of Understanding’. Closer ‘Wobble John Silver’ is the pick of a very good bunch with its stilted rhythm and deep, distorted bass. I expect these tracks would sound incredible played out through a decent PA, but they also manage to hold their own as listening music and, as a body of work, have a unity which makes listening straight through a real pleasure.
On a slightly different note – my review copy came in the form of a CD-R. I hope the rough, hand stenciled aesthetic of the packaging is carried over to the 12″ format, it is the perfect visual foil to the dark, strewn sounds inside.
Adrian Elmer
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