Monolith – Concrete Playground (Album – Hands)
Genre/Influences: Industrial, Industrial-Techno, Electro.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: Eric van Wonterghem (Absolute Body Control, Sonar, The Klinik, Insekt, Detune-X ao) doesn’t need any further introduction. The Belgian veteran strikes back with the twelfth full length album of his Monolith solo-project.
Content: The work takes off with a Cinematic-Industrial piece which sounds like an intro. We next embark on a dark sonic journey made of Industrial sound treatments, obscure and sometimes mystic atmospheres, menacing, low, bass lines and danceable rhythms.
+ + + : The album features 17 tracks so no need to say Monolith remains creative and prolific after more than 20 years of involvement. The tracks have been slowly built up and feature ‘Industrial intelligence’. “Concrete Playground” is a diversified opus like illustrated by the clubby track “Push”, the heavy “Gallium Element” which sounds like Thomas P. Heckmann on an Industrial journey, the mystic-like “Take Me High”, the haunting “The Hunter” and “The Sky Turns Red” for its irresistible, low, sound treatments. The album illustrates the endless creative mind of this Belgian sound guru but also his open-minded spirit to compose Industrial music.
– – – : I regret some of the tracks aren’t a bit more extended. I’m also missing the Tribal influences from earlier releases.
Conclusion: Monolith took out a patent on Industrial music like no other artist can make. “Concrete Playground” is a new must have!
Best songs: “Push”, “Gallium Element”, “Take Me High”, “The Hunter”, “The Sky Turns Red”, “Concrete Playground”.
Rate: 8.
Artist: www.facebook.com/monolithrecords
Label: www.handsproductions.com / www.facebook.com/hands.official
About Monolith
Monolith is the solo project of Belgian musician Eric Van Wonterghem, started in 1997. Van Wonterghem began his career in the early 1980s as composer for the minimal synth act Absolute Body Control alongside Dirk Ivens, later joining Ivens and Marc Verhaeghen in The Klinik, and continuing to collaborate with Ivens in Sonar. “Concrete Playground” is Monolith’s twelfth full-length album, released on Hands.
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