Monoceros. Tales For Silent Nights, 2007. Imaginary Nonexistent Records. ( Produced By – Joan Malé ) ~ [ Album Review | 1) Igloo Magazine + 2) IsraTrance ]
1) The great democratization project that’s come with ever-widening computer-mediation has not been an unalloyed blessing. Now that anyone with a computer and some software and half a clue about how to use them is empowered to indulge their (sometimes little more than wishful) creativity, there’s a need for greater quality control to be exercised at source. There was a time when this was the remit of record label operatives, but in this day and age, with the means of production in the hands of the indie-workers, anyone can put a vaguely professional-sounding electronic product out there with scant consideration of market-flooding.
Late in the day, then, too late for the clear blue IDM-sky, it’s hard to treat this, the second album by Barcelona’s Joan Malé aka Monoceros, as much more than a further exhibit in the mounting testimony to virtual musical redundancy and a maxed-out electronic sub-genre. Jointly issued by local label Fueradeserie! and Malé’s own Imaginary Nonexistent Records, Tales for Silent Nights might just as easily have come out on Neo Ouija in 2003, Toytronic in 2004, Expanding in 2005, or Cactus Island in 2006. The point being that TFSN is more or less standard issue beat-enhanced keyboard-driven melodic electronica of the type we’ve grown over-accustomed to over the last half-decade. Familiarity breeds if not contempt then something unhealthily related, as these years have seen boutique IDM-electronica labels replicating each others’ operations and issuing enough soundalike works to induce jadedness in even the most enthusiastic of palates.
TSFN opens divertingly enough, with the drift’n’crunch of “The Day We Become One” still gambolling about, still womb-warm, but the collection rapidly cools and interest palls, as pedestrian structures plonk past in linear limbo. Proficiently sculpted pieces like “(The Big Wave),” “Warm,” and “Happiness” are twinklingly appeasing enough, but as they list this listener gets listless, as this undemanding post-millennial easy listening cosies up, pirouetting prettily, in resplendent vacuousness. Halfway in, it occurs that Monoceros did in fact deliver a moderate album When I Was A Child I Wanted To Be Astronaut for Expanding in 2005, but TFSN brings nothing further to the table. Centred as it is on clunky glitch-stitched beats and customary rather than customized synth-wash with a stroke or two of guitar-pluck, it struggles to make any impression beyond the bare interest maintenance its generic gestures seem content to limit themselves to.
2) STYLE Soft ambient pads, glitchy beats and light, clean electronica. Tales for Silent Nights is an excellent series of atmospheric compositions very well produced. Smooth, soft focus backdrops fluctuate in loops, repeating patterns and shifting, filmy, gossamer abstraction. These are overlaid with fractured beats built up of clicks, ticks, blips, static and crackle with strong kicks - although quite busy, these complex beats are wrapped up in a downtempo laziness that is welcome and soothing. Melodies range from dreamy and blissful such as on the appropriately titled 'Warm', through elegant beauty to mechanical sharpness and edgy shadow. The sound palette includes a number of guitar based sounds such as the harmonic plucks that set the pace for 'Background Birds' and a variety of echoing stabs and almost sci-fi zaps, squishes and sonic flares. The occasional harshness of the synthetic leads often resolves beguilingly into an overall restfulness once all of the musical elements are all in place and complementing one another.
MOOD
There is a dignified warmth about this album like the glow of soft artificial light against evening gloom. There is, however, also the chill of the shadow behind the light - many of the atmospheres presenting a slightly uneasy darkness lurking beyond the more harmonious elements. At times the crisp electronic percussives and bleeps develop a jagged edge, sparking like live electricity, static crackling in the air.
ARTWORK
Tales For Silent Nights comes in a tasteful digipack fronted by one of the artist's own photographs - a night shot of a deserted road, the verge illuminated by the headlights of an unseen vehicle, pylons disappearing into a distant vanishing point ... but then the hazy red glow of a misty aurora is seen hanging across the bright disc of the moon. This cover image runs over onto about a quarter of the back panel - the rest is flat black for the title list. Inside the package opens onto more night black - CD on the left, text on the right ... brief recording details, thanks and contact information.
OVERALL
Monoceros is Spanish based musician Joan Malé who also owns and runs the label Imaginary Nonexistent Records (INR) as a vehicle for his creations. Tales For Silent Nights is the second album under the Monoceros title but the prolific Joan also produces music under the aliases Salad, .Exe and Lumière, each project focussing on a different specific style. This is a strong album of cutting edge digital electronica in my opinion that has some delightful highlights and an overall tastefulness that makes me want to like each track. If you are familiar with the sounds of such labels as Expanding Records or Static Caravan you'll have an idea of the sound Monoceros works with - night time shades, artificial luminance, organic-mechanic crispness and ambient warmth.
WHO WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM
Monoceros produces pure electronica for fans of lazy glitch filled ambient beat music. This is well crafted, intelligent music in the same overall field as Sabi, Sleepy Town Manufacture and Sutemos material.