Monotonix: Where Were You When it Happened

In answer to the apt question: When I first listened to this record I wasin my bedroom, where I am now, and the Red Arrows were doing a flyover directly above my house. For those foreigners unfamiliar with the Red Arrows, here’s a video:

I was aware that it was a planned event, but I hadn’t been paying much attention. As the absolutely stonking ‘I Can’t Take it Anymore’ blared out of my speakers I saw a jet coming straight at me, at what looked like an altitude of twenty metres above my house. I cowered in fear. Then I went outside and watched them, cowering again when the thunderous bastards crept up on me from behind.

It was quite a show… (anyone who has seen Monotonix Play with a capital P, as I have (reviewed here), probably knows what’s coming)

But not as good a show as a Monotonix gig!

To cut to the chase: it’s long been said that although they are one of the most enjoyable live acts in the world, these Israeli prank-peddlers don’t really bear up to scrutiny on record, they essentially said it themselves in this interview here. Now before you get lost in three concurrent Monotonix articles, let me say this: This record is one of the best raw kneed rock records since Link Wray got his first hard on laid to wax.

In the interview they told me it was more “Who Live at Leeds” than their previous “Magical Mystery Tour” efforts. Whatever that means to them it translates into the kind of record that goes part of the way to stimulating the same energy that they dole out at shows. But it’s also more than that, the songs have as much depth as they do instant appeal; so don’t go confusing this positive review for some kind of “they’re great live so I should help them out by promoting their record, so they’re able to make a bit of dollar to keep them touring etc etc…”

Ami Shalev’s vocals are gloriously impassioned throughout; Wolf Man Eloquence at it’s finest. On ‘My Needs’, another highlight, he gives us:

“AOhhh Noooo, Owhhhh YEAAHHHH! I feel so good I …(unintelligible)…another every day.”

He’s relatively low in the mix, but that’s half the fun. When he feels like hollering out a chorus he gets up close enough, as on the nervous breakdown shuffle of ‘Set Me Free’. Tim Green has done a fantastic job of recording and producing here. On ‘Something Had Dried’ there is a strange quiver in the air, hovering around the boogie swing, the whammy bar riffs and the cymbal riding. They’ve changed down a gear, but the snarl and the threat is still present, more daunting in a way because it gives the impression that they’re singing a crude ode right at you… it’s disconcertingly uncomfortable in the heat of their gaze.

It’s like being courted by a Baboon whose persistence quickly turns into stalking: not without its charms, I think we would all agree? I have heard many an anecdote along the lines of “I was just thinking I should back off so that he didn’t get his hands on my pint, and then he swung around and glared at me before grabbing it and throwing it all over me”. As Shalev moans, implores and howls Yonatan Gat whips up a high end hurricane on his fat sounding guitar. It’s many times better than I expected and a thousand times better than what it would need to stoop to in order to stop me loving these mad bastards.

What ‘As Noise’ is about is anyone’s guess. A low feedback hum crackles along while Shalev wails up some Grade A Mourning in a mock Yiddish, complete with out of tune Falsetto, beckoning the Dragon out of the cave… it stomps and struts for a while, hinting that it is about to become the heaviest Monotonix track yet, which it does. Haggai is pounding his hairy heart out, Shalev is screaming like a man undergoing an amputation sans anaesthetic, Gat is pounding up and down, throwing some shred, some fuzzy noodling and some feedback into the cauldron before roasting it all on a black fire.

I love this record, each and every song. ‘Hunt You Down’ closes things out with a suitably spent, mock tear-jerking, organ croon. Existentially it’s a weird one, Monotonix don’t have time for binge-thinkers, that much is clear. They make a persuasive argument which occasionally involves words but mostly relies on animalistic gestures via hitting things and shouting. I think this might be the first time I have ever encountered a real rock-n-roll record in the Who/Stooges mould in anything other than a nostalgic context.

They’re bringing something to the table that can only get there with insults, bared teeth and barging, but if it wasn’t there we’d all be fucked. Long Live Monotonix, or Short Live Monotonix if that’s how it must be, but long enough for me to see them a few more times.