Feature: Monophonic Underground Decodes ‘Do or DIY’
Punk Head: The line “Institutions cannot prevent what they cannot imagine” feels like the spine of the record. What does that idea give you that traditional politics or scenes don’t?
Monophonic Underground: I have been making music off and on for a long time now but it got more serious during COVID. I’ve never really thought about or known where my music would fit in or if it would resonate with an audience, I made it because I like the sound of it…I don’t start out by thinking ‘lets make a this or a that track’, I just stick with where my head’s at. I’ve always just really liked the process of making music, it’s a great way to express and exorcise feelings and emotions rather than as something to publish further than just friends. Things changed last year…I was really struggling with finding a definition of done for tracks, it started affecting my ability to begin new stuff. I felt that releasing could find me some closure and publication might just become an integral part of the work itself. The planets aligned further when I read this polemical essay on the history of vanity publishing called ‘Do or DIY’, that’s where the line came from. It inspired me to not just think about closure but to also confront the motivation and philosophy behind what I was doing. It cemented the idea that creativity is a freedom and protest in its own right. If music and art is left to be curated and disseminated by established musical corporations, then what of innovation? what of art for the sake of experimentation, creation and expression. If people don’t publish, we’ll never push the envelope and artists and innovators don’t get a voice. In the current climate of polarising narratives and AI being able to produce works at the click of a button, we need as many new human creative voices as we can…thinkers, musicians, artists, subversives…it doesn’t matter.
I think the concept behind the line is a simple one, but one that won’t be found in the pages of corporate or government manifestos - Institutions/corporations/AI can’t prevent, change or even create what they can’t conceptualise and don’t leave it in their hands to try and regurgitate then sell the human condition back to us for a fee. I hope people find this spirit throughout the EP.
Punk Head: You started this project by re-scoring
Nosferatu and Metropolis—films obsessed with power, control, and alienation. What did working with century-old fear unlock that modern culture couldn’t?
Monophonic Underground: These are timeless themes that are as relevant now as they ever were. I have always been captivated by the way silent films deliver narratives - no noise or fanfare, the viewer has to engage totally with what’s happening on screen. It’s the exact opposite of social media posts or bloated Netflix series that seem to run for twice the number of episodes required to tell the story. Both films work on many different levels, although one has to acknowledge them as products of their time but look beyond that and you find we haven’t really changed since then. Metropolis deals with the dehumanising effects of technology as well as class division and capitalism. Both introduced cinematic tropes that are embedded in our culture today but through the post WW1 expressionist lense. Tastes change, but some universal themes remain the same.
From a musical perspective, having a series of ready made set pieces that deal with differing narratives and emotions was a really interesting and exciting prospect. I chose several scenes and watched them over and over. I started to design the sound aesthetic for each one using a mixture of instruments, field recordings, percussions, impacts, samples and foley. I was aware of the films’ previous musical scores, but the ones I watched followed the same palate of sounds. I wanted was noise, impact and dissonance but also a naivety and simplicity. I really enjoyed the challenge because it was an exercise in timing as well as aesthetic, but it got to the point with it where I began to wonder what the fuck id do with it, so I decided to start cutting up the tracks and effectively created a large palate of material I could use, I liked the idea of mixing up pieces of music that had been set to very different emotional scenes. The first track I completed was ‘Nosferatu (for murnau) which is on the Bandcamp / Soundcloud release of the EP; this track seems to retain much of the spirit of the musical score from Nosferatu, I then added a processed Roland 909 to get the drums to fizz, snap and echo around before the track eventually breaks down into a kind of grimey beat accompanied by a concoction of foley and found sounds, I hope people check it out, they might like it.
Punk Head: “Killer” turns suburbia into something eerie and unstable. When did familiar places start feeling hostile/strange to you?
Monophonic Underground: I think I have always been fascinated by seeking the strangeness in familiar places, whether real or imaginary. J G Ballard said “I believe in the power of the imagination to remake the world”, I think this is true although the world has become more hostile in the last year or so. As the accepted global norms have begun to break down, we’ve seen a new hostility bleed into other areas of life and those wounds being constantly picked at by certain media and some powerful people. The biggest shock was the riots in the UK in the summer of 25. Suddenly you started to see places you knew becoming no go areas and scenes of an unrest the like we haven’t seen for many years, that’s hostility for you right there. Killer was my favourite track to make, the idea was to create a track with a slow burn aesthetic that encapsulates that sense of unease that comes over you after the sun sets in suburbia…places you know take on a more sinister edge as daylight is replaced by darkness. You cross the road to avoid the person you wouldn’t give a second thought to during the day. Passing police cars takes on a greater significance after dark, parks and quiet places suddenly take on new terror. I wanted the solid, predictable beat to break down and then re-awakened as something more sinister reveals itself…then goes absolutely mental…but finish when you want a little more. I wanted to dedicate it to Harmony Korine. I really like his artwork and I think it was the AGGRESIVE DR1FTER exhibition that had a huge influence on the track, there were these people in hoods, the colours were all acid infrareds and it just seemed to have the same terror of the night but in reverse.
Punk Head: You pull from acid house, minimal techno, Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, and cut-up techniques. How do you keep those influences dangerous instead of decorative?
Monophonic Underground: I’ve been fascinated for a long time by the artist Brion Gysin and his experiments with cut ups; I find his idea that you can liberate meaning from fixed texts by physically cutting and rearranging words to reveal hidden realities interesting, so I wanted to have a go at applying to music. I’d imagine it’s probably something that most electronic musicians/producers do without thinking as electronic music is about chopping, cutting and rearranging. I don’t really follow one specific genre of music but I do think music you love becomes hardwired into your brain and they become part of your consciousness. I remember first hearing VU when I was a kid and it absolutely blew me away. I loved the way the Andy Warhol album takes you from Lou Reed’s unfiltered lyrics over the sweetest raucous, repetitve guitar noise to Nicos gentle, simple, beautiful songs. Sonic Youth affected me in a similar way and I always wanted to make electronic music that keeps those influences baked in rather than as a suggestion. I think music like that still retains its kind of FU/no compromise sound, I don’t imagine either act developed their work to appeal to the mass market. I think there are parallels with Acid House, Techno and IDM, it’s always been about doing it yourself and standing on your own feet. I adore electronic music, especially the sound of acid, it has a raw energy about it. As you’d expect, I used a lot of monophonic analogue synths throughout the EP. If Lou Reed were to start making electronic music now, I bet he’d use a 303. I think acid has always been subversive… it has a kind of truth about it…I read that Woody Guthrie had a sticker on his guitar that read “this machine kills facists”…the 303 kills facists.
Punk Head: The EP was recorded across multiple locations and finished during Ibiza’s worst storm in years. Do you believe environments leave fingerprints on music, even if listeners can’t name them?
Monophonic Underground: Yes, absolutely. I adore making music in different locations. My methodology is a little unorthodox. I love to work from hotels; technology means you can do this and get some meaningful work done. I like to go to a remote hotel, usually one of those resort hotel in the middle of nowhere; I take a couple of pairs of decent headphones, a field recorder, MacBook, midi keyboard and set up in a quiet room. I like capturing field recordings and making music somewhere totally detached with no distractions. Hotels are great for that as there is a range of sounds you can capture. I like the feeling of anonymity and of being out of the normal rhythms and routines of life. People are relaxed and have no real purpose, especially in those hotels where they serve food and drink all day. I find the music I write in those places almost becomes like a sonic scrap book and as I listen back, I have a sense of where and when. It adds another dimension to the work and does influence how I do the production, you kind of get the emotion of place back again as you work. I don’t know how that would come across to a listener. I think Cabin Fever was definitely influenced by the weather and the chaos that went with it.
Punk Head: Do or DIY feels anti-permission. Who do you think needs to hear that message most right now?
Monophonic Underground: Honestly, anyone who wants to follow their own instincts and publish their own work but feels their work won’t fit in. We should cherish the inherent truth in all art created by the individual (and not by AI). Music and art can convey a message more powerful than any news report or social media post ever can and will continue to do so for as long as it exists…take Picasso’s Guernica as an example. Art as freedom stands up against autocracy and although it can be critiqued, pastiched, copied, loved, hated or ignored, it can’t be written off as ‘fake news; its a quiet insurrection which stands as an imperfect and abstract mirror to our societal traumas, our dark traits, hopes and fears. German expressionist silent films made more than a century ago, stand as a monument long after autocrats exit the stage. I want anyone who thinks they have to compromise to get noticed to do it for themselves to publish and be damned as the more voices speak, the louder the noise.
