steering clear of the mainstream
since 2001

june 2010

review
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info opinion

Monotract

"Pagú" LP

Public Eyesore

Genres: noise, sound collage, experimental

Bryan Day / PE
3803 S 25th St.
Omaha, NE 68107

Feb 24 - Mar 2 2003

Public Eyesore number 60.  Wow.  They've come so far.  How fitting, then, for them to have chosen to release a nice vinyl LP to celebrate the occasion of their sixtieth release.

Well, let me tell you - this certainly is an interesting record.  Monotract are the trio of Nancy Garcia, Carlos Giffoni, and Roger Rimada, who have created a whole album's worth of noisy, chaotic electronic crunches and beeps.  The sound is not unlike a drill, with a barrage of assorted noises, sounds, and beeps coming at you at a supersonic pace.  Little clippets of the chaos are vaguely recognizable - bits of media here, something remotely musical sped up beyond comprehension there - only a little vocal tidbit pops out of the noise every once and a while.

Monotract screws around with a whole number of things on Pagú, including beats and occasional musical samples - as far as noise goes, the dense layers of sound on this album offer far more interesting things to gawk at than most of the harsher, abrasive material that comes out nowadays.

The occasional breaks from the chaos add some contrast to the mix; for example, "Ella's Song" starts off with an answering machine message, only to blow everything up when the tinny female voice is cut up and ripped apart into a beaty, bleaty sound collage.

If you're in the mood for some dense, noisy sound collages, Monotract's Pagú is where you'll want to look.  Be warned, though, things get messy.

83%

Fun Fact: Monotract are from Miami!  And that's the most fun fact we could find.

Matt Shimmer

[Vitals: 13 songs, distributed by the label, released 2002]