Instrumental rock/metal act MONOTROPE have announced the November 10th release of debut album Unifying Receiver on New Atlantis Records. In addition to New Atlantis’ vinyl and digital release, a cassette release is in the works with Sleeping Giant Glossalia. Listen to their new track “Monoliths” below.
A brand new collaboration, MONOTROPE exists in a realm of instrumental rock that is progressive in its musicality but punk at its core. In a space between the twists and turns of Don Caballero, and the raw, heartbreaking power of Slint or Rodan, MONOTROPE‘s compositions drive forward, equal parts complexity and grit. Guitars intertwine in dissonant, polyrhythmic webs, while the rhythm section forges ahead on a straighter, unrelenting path. Abstract and intricate when viewed closely, Unifying Receiver rocks hard from the bird’s eye view; its six songs are emotive, guitar-driven tales of struggle and catharsis, travel and arrival, tension and release.
Tracked in a DIY fashion at four locations across the nation, and mixed by Tim Green (Melvins, Sleater-Kinney), the recording is as live and natural as can be – straight from the creators’ hands to your ears – yet the sound is rich and full, and a joy to get lost in. The album was mastered by Carl Saff (Unsane, Big Business).
A truly bicoastal bunch, the Monotrope members are spread wide across the USA, representing California, Texas, Ohio, and Maryland. Guitarist Ed Ricart, known from bands such as Hyrrokkin and Matta Gawa, is owner of New Atlantis Records, the label handling the Unifying Receiver release, whose catalog boasts an awesome range of acts from the experimental fringes of jazz, rock, and noise. Bassist Matthew Taylor is a member of Bellini, alongside Girls Against Boys drummer Alexis Fleisig, and worked for years as art director for Touch & Go Records, designing iconic album layouts for the label’s revered roster of bands.
Photo: MONOTROPE by Jay Divinigracia
Ricart and Taylor are flanked by guitarist Dan Wilson (ex-Hurl) and drummer Joe Barker (Unraze). Between the four of them, these men have collaborated in one way or another with a phonebook’s worth of eminent musicians: from avant icons like Glenn Branca andMerzbow, to members of hardcore and indie-rock royalty like Black Flag, Fugazi, Brainiac, and Tortoise.
On Unifying Receiver these vets channel their vast experience into a sound which reflects their next-level musicianship and love for the avant, but which, above all else, bursts with feeling and takes us on a ride. Without words, this album says a lot.
Ricart offers this perspective: “The title Unifying Receiver was chosen to convey a general sense of monolithic potential and hope, despite things obviously not feeling all that hopeful lately… It seems to me like some messianic entity in receivership of the sum total of the world’s bullshit and filth and misery, and through facilitating the processing of said bullshit, it effectively aids and transcends it all and brings the world together on commonalities instead of points of division. Which is effectively what many people do in some capacity, every day, seeing and experiencing various degrees of beauty and misery, processing it all, and hopefully finding ways to weave tighter bonds with others and ourselves in the process.”
