If the first light of day usually brings clarity, Perth’s Monotonic are here to ensure things stay gloriously disorienting. The experimental psychedelic trio has recently released their latest single, 'Lazers At Dawn', a track that evokes the lingering, kaleidoscopic remnants of a night that defies closure. Released via the ever-reliable Hidden Shoal, this second offering from their forthcoming LP, 'Heavy Metal', confirms that the band isn’t just revisiting the trippy tropes of the past—they’re actively warping them into something far more visceral and modern.
The song’s DNA is a fascinating collision of high-art cinema and headphone-heavy classics. Born from a late-night encounter with the 1968 cult film 'Performance' and nourished by the immersive textures of Spiritualized’s 'Lazer Guided Melodies' and the jaunty psych of The Rolling Stones’ 'Between The Buttons', the track is a masterclass in atmospheric tension. Where their previous effort, ‘The Purple Chords Play Belle Fourche’, teased a woozy expansion, ‘Lazers At Dawn’ dives headfirst into the thick of it. Driven by thumping, insistent percussion, the soundscape is a dense thicket of heavy vocal delay and humming guitars that strike a fine balance between abrasive grit and a surprising, buried tunefulness.
There’s a seasoned chemistry at play here that you can’t simply manufacture. Monotonic is comprised of Perth alt-rock royalty: Liam Coffey (Header), Allan Balmont (Ammonia), and Jack Lucas (Yummy Fur/Six Mile High). After decades apart, the trio’s pandemic-era reunion sparked a creative fire that transformed casual jams into an undeniable sonic mission.
As Coffey puts it, “It feels like a luxury to be able to record music that doesn't privilege vocals over other instruments or attach prescriptive meaning to lyrics. It allows sufficient time and space for one- or two-chord progression songs to really settle into a groove.”
Recorded at the isolated Aerial Recording in the Perth Hills and polished to a dark sheen at Abbey Road by mastering legend Frank Arkwright, the single possesses a world-class weight. It is a brooding, immersive experience that suggests the full album, arriving 27th March, will be one of the year’s most essential psych-rock journeys.
For more on the road to the new record, be sure to follow Monotonic on Instagram and Facebook.
