“…this really is a cut above. 9/10” - Kris Needs - Data Transmission: May 2012
When South London electronic cabal METAMONO play live, they employ a unique, Tardis-like console of cannibalized analogue synthesisers, ring modulators, rhythm boxes and a large, PYE valve radio set. On its dial, the capitals of Europe - London, Berlin, Paris…
…and Warsaw. This is where METAMONO have tuned into for their latest transmission from the electro-etheric beyond, for a cover of Warszawa, Bowie’s tragic requiem from 1977’s Low (a Manchester band used it as their name, of course, before relaunching as Joy Division). David has, of course, recently broken a decade’s recording silence; could even he have imagined a recreation like this? Within, the original’s sombre majesty is replaced by something more feverish and nervy, accelerating into a kind of Ballardian Proto-House that marries reason and nightmare, and forces us to reevaluate our shared sonic memories – did Warszawa, really, always sound like this? Over on side AA, there are more strange recollections of the pre-digital future, and startling predictions of an erased past. Glimpsed from across mud flats with concrete cooling towers on the horizon, Shafty surfs on sine waves into the jacking zone with the utmost, hypnotic inscrutability.
This limited-run 7” single is the third release on METAMONO’s label INSTRUMENTARIUM, and follows the admirably unique Parcel Post EP and the Bambino Lives Cassette. It represents another chapter in a story of innovating backwards. A disciplined trio, METAMONO do things the hard way, welcoming accident, embracing restriction and letting circuit boards fall where they may. Not for them the spirit-sapping ease of digital production, and its disastrous effect on creativity (see their online manifesto:
www.metamono.co.uk - of NO OVERDUBS/ALL ANALOGUE/NO SAMPLING for more). If you understand what this means, come to their March 23 launch do at Bambino in Crystal Palace, where you can feast your unbelieving eyes on those synths and that old radio set, and maybe even give it a twiddle, while your other hand toys with a Theremin. There’s an album scheduled for September as well.
In age of foolish credulity, and too-easily satisfied desires, we are accustomed to consuming the dubious horsemeat lasagna of ersatz art. METAMONO is an imaginative alternative. METAMONO is a sound you can trust.