Saturday, June 21, 2008

I Monster - Neveroddoreven (Karma/Dharma)

Thanks to my DVR, I never watch commercials these days. But there was this one ad, from AT&T, which got me to hit pause. It displayed flowers opening up, containing the cell phones inside. But it was also the music that stopped me. After the second time I saw the ad, I jumped on Google and sure enough, the first hit was people asking "what's that song on that commercial..." [I used the lyrics as keywords]. I've never heard of I Monster before, and after previewing a couple of tracks I just threw the whole album into the shopping cart. I was truly surprised to enjoy the entire album. It is now on its sixth rotation, and thus, deserves a write up. I Monster is a British group creating fresh, fun and bouncy trip-hop with very catchy samples and melodies. The two members are Sheffield based Jarrod Gosling and Dean Honer. Honer is also a member of All Seeing I and worked on some Add N To (X) albums. Together with Barry Smith (aka Barry 7), Honer founded a label, Cercle Records, on which the original 7" vinyl single of Daydream In Blue was released. In 1998 the duo has released their debut album, These Are Our Children. The track that got me all hyped up after hearing it only twice, Daydream In Blue, climbed the charts as a single, and soon after, the second album, Neveroddoreven, was released by Instant Karma and its sublabel, Dharma Records. [In 2004, Neveroddoreven, was also released on Atlantic]. I caught up with I Monster to get the spiel on their upcoming album. Here is the 411 - it is finished, no title or release date yet, a 7" vinyl single of a track titled A Sucker For Your Sound is coming up. Meanwhile you can preview the song on their myspazz. I seriously can't stop listening to this. Recommended if you like Moloko, Lovage, Portishead, Lemon Jelly, and Télépopmusik.

myspace.com/imonsteruk | imonstermusic.com

2 comments:

Daniel said...

I full intend to check this album out. I was extremely intrigued by that commercial as well. I should have looked into it sooner.

Unknown said...

This is actually a very common sample. The Beta Band used it in "Squares" as well. It comes from "Daydream" by The Wallace Connection, a band from the 60s.