South Carolina independent creator Xeno Ray JNB has delivered a sprawling, defiant counter-narrative to our hyper-saturated digital landscape. His latest offering, ‘Mono Modern’, is a conceptually heavy record that channels the alienation of classic technological dread but updates it for the overstimulated chaos of the mid-2020s.
Born out of creative burnout following the poor reception of a previous collaborative project, the album works as an investigation into the symbolic death of art itself, tracking how, where, and why a personified figure named Mona was destroyed by modern society. It’s a record that feels wonderfully human and intentionally unpolished, rejecting the sleek veneer of automated production to create something gritty, honest, and all-encompassing.
Breaking ground with manually tracked instrumentation and a focus on using a basic interface, guitars, and a drum machine, the album has a tactile approach that is often lost in modern releases. It yields a dense, nocturnal atmosphere where ambient glitch, industrial funk, and experimental hip-hop collide.
Opening track ‘Mono's Mona’ establishes a sombre tone, letting drifting synths and ghostly textures float, while a weary vocal asks, "Why don’t you look at me?" It sounds like a desperate plea for human connection in an era dominated by fleeting attention spans. The record then shifts gears with ‘Everything is Chrome’, a track boasting a warbled, rhythmic strut that leans heavily into a gritty electronic funk. Here, the groove carries a distinct undercurrent of dissatisfaction with performative culture and machine-led entertainment.
The album truly shines when it embraces a multi-part structure across the tracks. The expansive ‘White Critic’ utilises a narrative sample from online creator Dashawn Marvelle to sharply dissect the whitewashing of Black American culture and the exploitation of minority creatives. Later, ‘T.O Gangsta / One Nation Station’ features a compelling guest spot by Jaydee Great before dissolving into a cinematic, dystopian spoken-word finale. The voice warns of a global unity shaped by a distinct ideology that contradicts the capitalistic West, declaring, "Their future wants one nation, one nation, in other words, one delegation, but you won’t know any of that…"
At times, the density and force of the sound collages and the extended runtimes of tracks like ‘Polystean / Tie Dye Fishies’ can feel slightly overwhelming, demanding a patience that casual listeners might struggle to give. However, this friction is entirely the point. Xeno Ray JNB is “adopting its technological and anxiety-ridden theme and turning it into my own but with a mid-2020s twist about artists who feel creatively burned out by AI, Whitewashing of black American culture, modern society, quick dopamine, and algorithmic machines plotting on small creators.” It is a challenging, deeply compelling critique of modern existence.
Escape the algorithm and witness the resistance by streaming the new album above. For more, be sure to follow Xeno Ray JNB on Instagram and X.
