Bleep

Interstate proved to be a turning point in Monolake's discography. A stark departure from the monsoon laden longform minimal dub of their debut album Hongkong, this 1999 followup is maximalist and full of whirring details. Robert Henke and Gerhard Behles moved away from Chain Reaction to release on their own Imbalance Computer Music label, founding Ableton with Bernd Roggendorf in the same year which Behles would leave the group to focus on. Interstate therefore came at a time of busy and great change, represented in a long exposure where vehicles whizz about like atoms in the neverending hustle and bustle of the highway.

Through microscopic detail Monolake elevated the hypnotic grooves they had conjured before, honing the evocative nature of their sound design. Much like the soaked field recordings woven through their previous work, ‘Amazon’ presents a springy, pingponging meditation on the biosphere, growing more intense and plentiful until it evolves into a clamoring dancefloor of digital creatures. ‘Gecko’ mirrors this, constructing fast complex drums through synthetic croaks and chirps, bringing organic texture to a masterclass of computer production.

The density and physicality of these productions would become a staple throughout Monolake’s discography, using dub and ambient techno as a base palette for which microbeats would be splattered on top. The aptly titled ‘Abundance’ bounces and rebounds, creaks with scattered metallic percussion and electrical shivers, warmth supplied by lush washes as sounds clatter and pulse. The duo’s work on Ableton and Max/MSP is no sidequest to this album, rather forming a combined thesis statement on the future of music production, and enabling them to zoom in on a more intricate soundworld.