Monolake

(This article’s English version was produced with AI-assisted translation)

At a certain point in a producer's journey, attention to detail, individual elements that are fleeting but together can elevate the listening experience, takes on a decisive role. In this sense, experience can only work in favor of musicians: a refined sense of rhythm, enviable technical skill, and here the tracks seem to generate spontaneously, flawless and with unexpected resolutions, far from the canonical 4/4, layered to the point of appearing as a visionary reinvention of polyrhythm according to the cybernetic dictates of the new millennium. More melodic but just as cerebral compared to his previous works, "Studio" is Robert Henke's latest creation, known as Monolake and one of the leading figures of Chain Reaction, the legendary German label that, with its approach suspended between prevailing minimalism, nebulous dub digressions, and electroacoustic experimentation, has left an indelible mark on everything that has emerged in club music since the '90s.

Between Autechre-like granular textures and harmonic flickers that somehow evoke a remix of Kraftwerk's poetic vision (just think of "Red Alphonso"), the full-length unfolds through ten tracks of stunning technical mastery, built with the precision that only a veteran can provide. However, it remains uncertain whether the ideas behind the meticulous sound design are as powerful as those in works like "Hongkong" and "Interstate", as if that liquid, futuristic grandeur had been replaced by a level of maturity that, although unassailable, perhaps doesn’t leave the same aftertaste of completion, of having crossed an impalpable and yet viscerally tangible work, murky yet hypnotically enveloping.

That said, it’s hard to complain: "Cute Little Aliens," with its relentless abstractions, sounds like a pseudo-trance experiment with dark hues. And, for the Italians, it's impossible not to mention "Global Transport," with its samples from the national train service ("è diretto a Bologna Centrale..."), which also turns out to be one of the catchiest tracks of the lot—fun but whose essence often offers already familiar patterns. And it is perhaps here that the album's limit lies: the journey of a master who has already told much of his philosophy, a collection of detailed textures on not-so-bright intuitions. Perhaps, though, this is the inevitable path of any artist who, with little doubt, has now reached full artistic evolution.

06/02/2025