Monolake - Studio

VLSI era stuff is my favourite, but it's good to hear more Monolake.

  On 9/9/2024 at 11:38 AM, Blir said:

That's in the running for worst album closer of all time I think. Brave of Henke to do a shreds track of himself.

Haha what you on about? quite possibly the best track on the album! (ands it's all fantastic)

  On 9/9/2024 at 2:27 PM, kirm said:

Haha what you on about? quite possibly the best track on the album! (ands it's all fantastic)

Hey listen, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but you're wrong.

  On 9/9/2024 at 2:27 PM, kirm said:

Haha what you on about? quite possibly the best track on the album! (ands it's all fantastic)

I think the conclusion here is that Momentum aside, Monolake simply isn't for me, except for the occasional other track here and there. I can't think of a another producer with the sound design chops of Henke who makes music as dull as he does. His tracks feel like 1-2 minute sketches dragged out far beyond what they deserve.

Fair enough do get that, slightly different case but feel like Richard Devine similar for me. Proper respect his sound design & on paper his shit should be right up my street but every time I listen to him, it does nothing for me.

Btw though isn't all the best techno  just sketches dragged out far beyond what they deserve with some minimal variation

  On 9/9/2024 at 4:28 PM, kirm said:

Btw though isn't all the best techno  just sketches dragged out far beyond what they deserve with some minimal variation

 

A lot of techno artists do this. Almost everyone I listen to that makes more four to the floor type stuff just create a nie sound, put a beat over it and let it go on for a couple of minutes, I don't mind it, especialy if it's all well crafted anyway. Monolakes music is more minimal and the slight variations he introduces during the runtime of his tracks usually keep me interested, there are far less interesting artists out there. than mr. Henke.

The first track reminds me of Ben Frost's closing theme for Dark.

  On 9/9/2024 at 4:28 PM, kirm said:

Fair enough do get that, slightly different case but feel like Richard Devine similar for me. Proper respect his sound design & on paper his shit should be right up my street but every time I listen to him, it does nothing for me.

Btw though isn't all the best techno  just sketches dragged out far beyond what they deserve with some minimal variation

 

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Funnily enough I was going to make the exact same comparison before. Devine has a few tracks that are amazing but mostly it's just clever sound design and not much else.

  On 9/9/2024 at 7:49 PM, Blir said:

Funnily enough I was going to make the exact same comparison before. Devine has a few tracks that are amazing but mostly it's just clever sound design and not much else.

Never enjoyed Devines music 
Sadly his best stuff that got me enjoying it is just those 1 minute snippets videos he uploads on Facebook. 

Monolake is cool but I guess it gets little bit repetitive sometimes. 

  On 9/9/2024 at 7:49 PM, Blir said:

a few tracks that are amazing but mostly it's just clever sound design and not much else.

This is how one of my mates describes the 'chre. The fool.

  On 9/9/2024 at 8:02 PM, NewSchoolScience said:

This is how one of my mates describes the 'chre.  Fool.

Your friend doesn't deserve to live

  On 9/9/2024 at 2:01 PM, oscillik said:

VLSI era stuff is my favourite, but it's good to hear more Monolake.

I think alot sounds like the VLSI stuff.. Take track 3 and for example. But not as good indeed. 

Lovely stuff as always. Hopefully he releases an album of his CBM 8032 material some day.

  On 9/9/2024 at 11:38 AM, Blir said:

That's in the running for worst album closer of all time I think. Brave of Henke to do a shreds track of himself.

Well Signals and Intermezzo also sounds like a joke. Apart from that, one of his best LPs.

This is kinda bland.

  On 9/9/2024 at 11:38 PM, NewSchoolScience said:

This is kinda bland.

TBH I've never liked any of Henke's music apart from the Gobi ambient LP. It just sounds very generic to me.

Let's just remind ourselves of this and then never talk about this new album again

  On 9/10/2024 at 7:08 AM, Squee said:

Let's just remind ourselves of this and then never talk about this new album again

 

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Can you tell me why you think it's so bad? It might not be Cinemascope level Monolake but I think it's really great.

  On 9/10/2024 at 8:38 AM, thumbass said:

Can you tell me why you think it's so bad? It might not be Cinemascope level Monolake but I think it's really great.

Why this is bad?

Sure!

Starts out fine. Just your average drone music.
Then the "lead synth" kicks in... it's pretty cool. Sounds like someone trying to replicate Moderat.
Then the spastic cymbal starts and everything is downhill from here. It sounds like someone's first IDM tune. The sound of the drums is horrible, the synth gets progressively more and more horrible the more he fiddles around with it and overall it just sounds exceptionally cheap.

There's ZERO build-up. Stuff just happens. The synth comes and goes as it pleases and if you were to start this tune at a random timecode no one would be able to identify where we are on the timeline. Has it just started? Is it peaking? It sounds like a live recording of someone testing out new plugins in Ableton.

Except for the mix it honestly sounds like someone who just discovered a sequencer and did what anyone does when they first start making electronic music... punch in a WHOLE bunch of drums and and then laugh at it.

Now the Plumpicon (Rebreather Mix) on the other hand is absolutely beautiful.

  On 9/10/2024 at 8:50 AM, Squee said:

Why this is bad?

Sure!

Starts out fine. Just your average drone music.
Then the "lead synth" kicks in... it's pretty cool. Sounds like someone trying to replicate Moderat.
Then the spastic cymbal starts and everything is downhill from here. It sounds like someone's first IDM tune. The sound of the drums is horrible, the synth gets progressively more and more horrible the more he fiddles around with it and overall it just sounds exceptionally cheap.

There's ZERO build-up. Stuff just happens. The synth comes and goes as it pleases and if you were to start this tune at a random timecode no one would be able to identify where we are on the timeline. Has it just started? Is it peaking? It sounds like a live recording of someone testing out new plugins in Ableton.

Except for the mix it honestly sounds like someone who just discovered a sequencer and did what anyone does when they first start making electronic music... punch in a WHOLE bunch of drums and and then laugh at it.

Now the Plumpicon (Rebreather Mix) on the other hand is absolutely beautiful.

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Okay well eclipse is the worst track of the album, do you find this to be true for the other tracks as well? Thru Stalactites, Signals, Stasis Field, Prime Lundy are different to me.

The rebreather mix isn't way more special either

  On 9/10/2024 at 9:04 AM, thumbass said:

Okay well eclipse is the worst track of the album, do you find this to be true for the other tracks as well? Thru Stalactites, Signals, Stasis Field, Prime Lundy are different to me.

The rebreather mix isn't way more special either

Just gave the other tracks a listen. Prime Lundy is pretty cool, but a lot of his sound design rubs me the wrong way.

  On 9/10/2024 at 8:50 AM, Squee said:

 

The synth comes and goes as it pleases and if you were to start this tune at a random timecode no one would be able to identify where we are on the timeline. Has it just started? Is it peaking? 

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I think this is a plus point though! 

Intermezzo also one of my favs on the album though, so maybe it's me that's weird 

Eclipse is great no idea what your point is lol

this is def my least favorite Monolake album on first listen but i dont really see much wrong with it, sounds like a less dramatic iteration of some of the ideas from the last album to me (again, on first listen) 

it's literally good.