JOHN MONKMAN, the London-based tech-electronica producer who’s put intelligent grooves out on labels such as Crosstown Rebels and Kompakt, has unveiled the bewitching monochrome grids of the video for his latest track on his own Beesemyer Music imprint, “Spectrum”.
It’s a deeply affecting two minutes-odd; there’s a lot built in to this track. As grid patterns shift and flex, heading out toward Bridget Riley optic-nerve confusion territory, grandiose synth swells, strings, overtop a loop of human chatter. It’s one of a few such tracks that for me, head into a similar country this summer; like Olivier Alary and Johannes Malfatti’s “Drifting”, which we took a look at here, and which comes at a very similar, profound vibe not from techno, but from the world of modern post-classical, it’s at once stirring, eerie in those found-sound voices, but also warmly and deeply human; it’s music of us, we’re here.
John says: “This was the first time I’d experimented with sampling classical music elements, such as a live operatic vocal take.
“Quite a bit of time was spent chopping and tuning the various vocal elements that I’d sampled, before recording the live performance you now hear.”
“Spectrum” follows the equally seductive and textural previous single, “Resonate”, the video for which you can watch here; both tease for what looks to be a fascinating soundscape of an album to come in the shape of his new album, Asriel, which will be out on August 28th.
You can buy and stream “Spectrum” and pre-order Asriel here.
