The St Petersburg producer, Monokle is in his 30s but listening to his back catalogue you would think he has been around for much longer. His output since the early 00s is incredibly vast, and his music has an old-school sound that fuses IDM and glitch in a manner reminiscent of classic electronic releases from the 90s.
His upcoming album, Mindperfection is the result of a collaboration with AL-90, a musician hailing from the Russian port of Murmansk on the edge of the Arctic Circle. The album definitely draws on Monokle’s earlier sound which unites fragments of IDM, glitch, ambient and drone to create a unique musical mosaic that has come to define the producer’s style. There is a lot going on on some of the tracks, samples with varying moods, accelerated beats, and scraps of voice heard here and there, but the overall picture is surprisingly not chaotic. In fact, the tracks of the album are tied together by a kaleidoscopic cohesiveness and inherent warmth.
Mindperfection is an album that delivers in textures and complexity. With tracks that are made up of superimposed layers that are at once dark and beautiful, alienating and warm, toe-tapping and introspective, the album is a melting pot of effects and ideas.