This EP grew from a fascinatingly unusual starting point, with music first written as imagined scores for silent films like Metropolis and Nosferatu! Those early ideas were later cut, looped, and creatively reshaped, giving the tracks a strong sense of movement and genuinely unexpected emotion. This exciting cut-up approach, inspired by Brion Gysin’s innovative ideas, runs throughout the entire release and gives it a restless, experimental edge that’s absolutely captivating! Sound-wise, the EP stays powerfully true to its underground roots. Analogue, monophonic synths take center stage, with acid basslines from a 303 and a Korg Monologue driving much of the […]
Cut, Loop, Create: Inside Monophonic Underground’s Do or DIY This EP grew from a fascinatingly unusual starting point, with music first written as imagined scores for silent films like Metropolis and Nosferatu! Those early ideas were later cut, looped, and creatively reshaped, giving the tracks a strong sense of movement and genuinely unexpected emotion. This exciting cut-up approach, inspired by Brion Gysin's innovative ideas, runs throughout the entire release and gives it a restless, experimental edge that's absolutely captivating! Sound-wise, the EP stays powerfully true to its underground roots. Analogue, monophonic synths take center stage, with acid basslines from a 303 and a Korg Monologue driving much of the atmospheric mood! The title track keeps percussion beautifully minimal, letting the bass speak for itself, while staying grounded in slower tempos and deeper mid and low tones that really hit! There are vivid inspirations throughout—from empty early-morning roads to unsettling nocturnal suburbia, and even being trapped indoors during a violent storm in Ibiza! Made entirely by the artist from start to finish, Do or DIY feels raw, thoughtful, and refreshingly honest. It may not chase trends, but that bold refusal is exactly what gives it real meaning and lasting impact! This is underground music with substance! Listen to Do or DIY below https://open.spotify.com/album/2rZj9Dd3h7eK4J0HvcPoVb?go=1&sp_cid=88446750f96f7efb6b12ac2f1112e89c&utm_source=embed_player_p&utm_medium=desktop Follow Monophonic Underground on Soundcloud Bandcamp Soundcloud What inspired the concept of “Do or DIY,” and how does it reflect the band's ethos of independence and creativity? The initial concept was born out of an earlier project to experiment with musical scores for scenes from silent films, mainly Metropolis and Nosferatu. I watched them on mute over and over and started to develop music and design the sound for each scene, using a mixture of instrumentals, field recordings and sampless I really enjoyed the challenge because it was about timing and aesthetic but it got to the point with it where I began to wonder what the fuck id do with it so I decided to start cutting up the midi files into 4, 6 and 8 bar loops and effectively created a large palate of loops, I liked the idea of mixing up pieces of music that had been set to very different emotional scenes, which led to some interesting musical phrasing. The loops and samples then became the source material I used to for each track, each with their own inspirations. I’d always been a massive fan of the artist Brion Gysin and his experiments with cut ups; his idea was that you can liberate meaning from fixed texts by physically cutting and rearranging words to reveal hidden realities so I wanted to have a go at applying to music. Id imagine it’s probably something that most electronic musicians/producers do without thinking as electronic music is about chopping, cutting and rearranging. The title of the EP was inspired by a polemical essay I read on vanity publishing of the same name. Despite having made music for many years (and seriously since 2022) I’ve always had an issue with releasing music, which meant I also had an issue with finishing tracks and convinced myself there was no merit in releasing music to wide audiences. There was a quote in this essay which goes… ‘institutions cannot prevent what they cannot imagine’, i read this and it changed my way of thinking on the matter. I realised that creating any art is a freedom and a protest in its own right, but more importantly, if music and art is left to be decided and disseminated by the established musical ‘elite’ then what of innovation? the trend will always be towards sponsoring and promoting artists that fit the popular trends and then we end up with a homogenous mass of singer, songwriters and catchy EDM floorfillers…not that there is anything wrong with any of these, but we’ll never push the envelope if we don’t innovate. How does this EP showcase your signature monophonic, underground sound through its tracks and production? I love analogue synths, especially monophonic ones, they have a unique sound and I think you have to work harder to get the right sound of them. I love 303s and I used one and a Korg Monologue a fair amount across the EP. Beats and percussion are really important to me, I wanted the percussion to be restrained and minimal on the track Do or DIY. The acid bass hopefully says enough and I didn’t want the percussion crowding out the sound. I also wanted the sound of the EP to be predominantly in the mid and low ranges and as the late, great Andrew Weatherall said “never knowingly exceeding 120 BPM”. I wanted each track to take the listener on a bit of a journey and allowing the track to build up but still respecting the listener enough to allow them to interpret the track each way they want. The second track A1_a19 was also inspired by a drive from Leeds on a deserted road early one morning, the sun is coming up, the road is dead, the mind wanders as the pace increases…I think this is the most energetic track on the EP and although retains the analogue sound from the 303 samples, has a more uplifting feel about it as it respects the traditional EDM build ups and drops. Killer is my favourite track on the EP, which was inspired by nocturnal suburbia as well as the artwork of Harmony Korine of whom I am a great admirer, his Agressive Dr1fter was hugely inspirational to me, especially RAVETEK14 and MANT1X FAZE..under the vivid acid, infrared colours there is real feeling of terror. This track was also sample and field recording heavy and the production took the longest. Cabin Fever was partially written and mixed in Ibiza during the worst storm of 2025, we were literally trapped in the hotel for days as the place flooded and the staff ran around trying to keep the water out. The track is a reminder that a guided cage with room service is still a cage. Can you walk us through the songwriting and recording process, particularly any DIY techniques that embody the title? My workflow has developed over the years and currently I like to ideate and then head off somewhere to start field recordings and writing music. Technology enables you to easily do that these days..I can take off for a week with a recorder, MacBook, tablet and midi keyboard and actually get meaningful stuff done. Hotels work best for me..especially the big resort ones in the middle of nowhere where people eat and drink all day, its great for field recordings as well..you get such a wide mix of sounds; from birds to people speaking in different languages as well as machinery and impact noises. Give me plenty of tragedy, comedy and an isolated place to work and Im happy. I then take everything back to the studio and add in the analogue synth parts and any analogue drums… I like 909s best as they have so much energy and intrigue to the sound, as well as a feeling of nostalgia about the sound. Everything is then recorded as loops before the final recordings. I would best describe the process as like making a stir fry, you spend ages preparing all the ingredients in advance, get them ready and ordered and then the actual cookery is fast and frenetic. That’s how I like to work. What themes of self-reliance, experimentation, or rebellion emerge across the EP? I think the whole EP speaks of self reliance, I like self reliance and on this release I managed the whole thing end to end myself...I learned a lot about the process and also about the parts I don’t enjoy and those I do. The artwork was the hardest. I think it’s easy to forget that self reliance is an act of rebellion in its own right as it relies on you trusting your gut and moral compass over societal pressure, institutions, and conformity. I think in today’s social media obsessed world, this is more important than ever. How do you balance raw, underground energy with polished musicality in “Do or DIY”? Despite projects being planned out based on an overall vision / design principle, as the actual recording is quite spontaneous, I think there is a rawness that gets baked in when you work like that, I start with inspiration, then design rules for each track that I lay out at the start although it rarely ends up that way as ‘happy accidents’ always seem to happen. Making music is a wonderful, engrossing process and I really adore all parts of it; from ideation and creation, to mixing and mastering…the latter is what takes the time really and I have a real issue with the definition of done in any track, I can iterate ad infinitum and this is why releasing has become so important. I really do hope those that like this style of music enjoy it, but that’s not the main goal of releasing...I think you need closure or you just end up drowning in a sea of unfinished tracks. https://open.spotify.com/artist/1isuWkfFSRRJrEx81v3Ekp?si=ee415afb65d04eb0 Were there innovative approaches to sound design or instrumentation that defined this release? Ive spoken about the design principles, creative inspiration and workflow which individually are not unique but I hope listeners like the vibe of the sum of their parts. I had an old analogue synth malfunction during the recording which resulted in a really weird sound being generated whenever I used it, which I actually loved and kept using…it sounded like fried vacuum cleaner being played through a bank of effects pedals, I liked the sound so much I used it a fair bit in the end. What listener response do you anticipate for this EP, especially within the underground scene? No clue really…Its probably not going to appeal to the mass market. I hope the underground scene like the vibe, I struggle to be able to categorise the sound, especially with so many sub genres out there. I just make what I like and mix it to sound how I like, so if there are people out there that share that then great as I made it to be listened to, so I hope people do just that…I’ll just keep making music and releasing it. I love the rules and structure of EDM and its sub genres but I didn’t want to make music that had a banging four to the floor beat from the first bar, but to try and give a sense of a journey through each track. The listeners can decide whether this is the case or not. What are your plans for promotion, live shows, or follow-up projects after “Do or DIY”? A: I have some material left over which I’ll put out in the next month or two but I am actively working on a new project now. I’m particularly interested in movement…especially the movement of people in.a space and setting this to music, I like the idea of watching people walking about and trying to make beats and music to accompany their movements - almost like making a musical score to situations and the inherent randomness of this…we’ll see what happens. I’d really like to do live shows in 2026 once I have worked out what the vibe and set would sound like and if there is demand.
