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Black Monk Time
1966 studio album by Monks From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Black Monk Time is the only studio album by German-based American garage rock band the Monks, released in March 1966 through Polydor Records. It was later retrospectively recognized by music critics as a forerunner to punk rock.
Black Monk Time was ranked number 56 on Spin magazine's list of "Top 100 Alternative Albums of the 1960s", number 127 on Pitchfork's greatest albums of the 1960s, and has been featured on the Word's "Hidden Treasure: Great Underrated Albums of Our Time", as well as the Sunday Herald's "The 103 Best Albums Ever, Honest", and the book, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[3][4][5][6]
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Background
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Formed in Gelnhausen, West Germany, in 1964, the Monks, originally known as the Tourquays, were signed by a German management team composed of Karl Remy, Walther Niemann, and Günther and Kiki Aulich,[7] who originally spotted the band at a show in Stuttgart. Bassist Eddie Shaw stated: "We were getting our haircuts when Roger [Johnston] decided to have a tonsure. That’s when we all decided to do it. Our manager Karl said, “That’s it!’”.[8] The rest of the band who were initially weary of the look, all eventually adorned tonsure haircuts, black religious habits and cinctures, while renaming themselves, "the Monks", with local newspapers at the time labelling the band "the anti-beatles".[8][9][10] In the wake of this change, the group altered their sound, incorporating guitar feedback, an electrified six-string banjo, drums with no cymbals, distorted bass lines, anti-war lyrics and a general emphasis on rhythm.[11]
Black Monk Time was produced by Jimmy Bowien, and recorded in November 1965 in Cologne, West Germany, then released by Polydor Records in March 1966. The songs "Complication" b/w "Oh, How to Do Now" were released as a single to promote the album, but like the album, failed to garner commercial success. The single was re-issued in 2009 by Play Loud! Productions.
Black Monk Time was not officially released in the United States until 1994, as Polydor Records deemed the music too experimental for an American audience and too blunt in its condemnation of the Vietnam War at the time.[12]
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Music
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According to Stephen M. Deusner of Paste Magazine: "The Monks were all rhythm section, with every instrument clicking into a tense lockstep punctuated by Gary Burger’s wild-man yelps and Dave Day’s electrified banjo—an instrument as distinct as the Thirteenth Floor Elevators’ electric jug. In their lusty frivolity, The Monks find a measure of gravity and outrage."[13] Their style was self-described as "Über-beat"[14]. In 2011, bassist Eddie Shaw underlined their musical process in an interview[15]:
To develop something new we developed a process known as deconstructing and reconstructing, laying down bass and drum patterns to be added to, by the other instruments. We made best use of each individual’s tendencies and abilities. In fact we made it very minimalist – single loud/distorted bass notes on the beat – drums with no cymbals except for accents – banjo rock and roll chords because it was a hard trashy sound – guitar, using the feedback – and organ playing beats and wild solos. All instruments were played as rhythm instruments.
The Guardian cited the minimal drumming style of the album as a precursor to krautrock, noting an early form of the "motorik" beat in Roger Johnston's performance, which was described as "tightly wound playing".[16]
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Critical reception
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The album was initially met with a muted critical and commercial reception, but has since become widely critically acclaimed and is now viewed as an important proto-punk album. In a retrospective review for About.com, Anthony Carew called it "possibly the first punk record" and "one of the 'missing links' of alternative music history", also citing it as an influence on the German krautrock movement.[1] Andrew Perry wrote in The Daily Telegraph in 2009: "Listening to it now, finally, in full, remastered glory, it's hard to imagine how this primitive and often nightmarish music could have been allowed to be made at that particular time and place. [...] It may not be to every taste but, lurching according to its own sublimely clueless logic, it has a purity and heedlessness which can never be repeated."[25] According to Len Comaratta of Uncut, "there's really nothing that can dull the impact of hearing the Monks' music for the first time."[26] Paste magazine described the album as "[eleven] songs of brash grooves and unearthly garage rock that show no signs of hobby or pastime."[27] In his book, The Rough Guide to Rock, writer Peter Buckley had said Black Monk Time has not "aged one iota. If anything, it has gotten stranger".[28]
Music historian Kelley Stoltz described the Monks as a group that "overwhelms the listener with a sound they termed 'over-beat' - at their worst it is totally oddball freakrock that sounds like a pleasurable argument". Stoltz concluded the band was an innovative musical act which "outsexed the [Sex] Pistols" ten years before any other punk band emerged.[29]
Julian Cope of the Teardrop Explodes described the album as a "lost classic" in his 1995 book Krautrocksampler, stating: "NO-ONE ever came up with a whole album of such dementia. The Monks' Black Monk Time is a gem born of isolation and the horrible deep-down knowledge that no-one is really listening to what you're saying. And the Monks took full artistic advantage of their lucky/unlucky position as American rockers in a country that was desperate for the real thing. They wrote songs that would have been horribly mutilated by arrangers and producers had they been back in America. But there was no need for them to clean up their act, as the Beatles and others had had to do on returning home, for there were no artistic constraints in a country that liked the sound of beat music but had no idea about its lyric content".[30][31]
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Legacy
In 2009, Light in the Attic released a reissue of Black Monk Time, which featured appraising quotes by several musicians. Artists such as Jello Biafra of Dead Kennedys, Jay Reatard, Fred Cole of Dead Moon, Casey Wescott of Fleet Foxes, Jared Swilley of Black Lips, Mark E. Smith of the Fall, Lenny Kaye of the Patti Smith Group, Krist Novoselic of Nirvana, Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo, Jack White of the White Stripes, Jon Spencer of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Ade Blackburn of Clinic, Jochen Immler of Faust, Iggy Pop of the Stooges, and the Beastie Boys, were featured in the liner notes as fans of the record.[32][33][34]
A tribute album, titled Silver Monk Time, containing tracks by numerous bands, was released in October 2006 as the soundtrack to the award-winning documentary Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback, notable artists included the Raincoats, the Fall, Silver Apples, Faust, Jon Spencer and Alan Vega of Suicide.[35][36]
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In popular culture
During the early 1990s, Mark E. Smith of English post-punk band the Fall, covered three of the album's songs: "I Hate You" and "Oh, How to Do Now" (as "Black Monk Theme Part I" and "Black Monk Theme Part II") on their 1990 album Extricate, "Shut Up" on their 1994 album Middle Class Revolt.
In 1997, Henry Rollins, formerly of Black Flag, alongside Rick Rubin, released the first American reissue of Black Monk Time on their "Infinite Zero" record label.[37]
In 1998, the Big Lebowski directed by the Coen brothers featured the song, "I Hate You". In 2000, Powerade featured "Monk Time" in an advertisement.[38]
In 2006 Play Loud! Productions released a Monks tribute album, Silver Monk Time, featuring 29 international bands (including the original Monks), in conjunction with the film Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback.
In 2017, Apple featured "Boys Are Boys and Girls Are Choice" in a commercial for the IPhone 7[39], while that same year the film Logan Lucky directed by Steven Soderbergh featured the song, "We Do Wie Du".[40]
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Track listing
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All tracks are written by Gary Burger, Larry Clark, Dave Day, Roger Johnston and Eddie Shaw.
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Personnel
- Gary Burger – vocals, electric lead guitar
- Larry Clark – vocals, Philicorda organ, piano (bonus tracks only)
- Roger Johnston – vocals, drums
- Eddie Shaw – vocals, bass guitar, trumpet (bonus tracks only)
- Dave Day – vocals, banjo guitar, electric rhythm guitar (bonus tracks only)
Release history
^a This release includes extensive liner notes, including interviews and photographs
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References
External links
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