Trueno Oscuro (2007)

From “Muddy Thunder”—the opener to Trueno Oscuro—you’d be hard-pressed to say there’s been much change in M.O. since 2005’s xprmntl lvrs. It isn’t so much a song as a choppy call-to-arms, a conflation of Melt-Banana circa Cell-Scape and recent Black Dice that can’t wrap up quite quickly enough. Then “Under My Arm” begins, and it’s as though we’ve moved from day into night: a wintery synth figure introduces itself once, then several times, as Garcia—who sounds as nervously on-edge as the listener will come to feel—haltingly conveys instructions like “Look up/Push the button.” It’s an unsettling, immobilizing detour for Monotract, so suspiciously reserved that you keep waiting for all heck to break lose. Nope. The rest of the album proceeds in a think-outside-the-box vein, from “Big N” —a puglistic, buzzing fray of drums and Garcia rapping—to “Mar Rojo,” which can best be described as in-the-red punk-metal. --Raymond Cummings

(WIRE MAGAZINE) ...blends trad to avant hardcore dynamics with electronic textures and far-out spatial distortions, resulting in a compelling marriage of worlds more accessible than the patronage of Load Records, home of Lightning Bolt and Yellow Swans, might suggest. One of the keys to the [Trueno Oscuro's] success lies in the application of dubwise treatments to the Q: Are We Not Men? Devo clamour of "The Ballad of Lechon" becomes a mind-shatteringly percussive assault, thanks to the liberal application of echo, most notably in its devastating final moments. This is by no means a new conceit- reverb has long been appropriated by cannier noisemakers, from Sonic Youth to Wolf Eyes- but Giffoni and company appear to have near-as-damnit perfected this particular art. Of course, it helps that in Roger Rimada the trio have a spectacularly talented drummer capable of balancing idiosyncracy with accuracy in a manner that wouldn't shame Keith Moon. Other tracks indicate a possible way out of the crowded noise ghetto, applying the abject-electro filth favoured by the aforementioned Wolf Eyes and their ilk to solid song structures, surprisingly without diminishing either. "Red Tide" is a particularly effective example, an unholy collision of synthesized throb, metallic clang and compulsive martial rhythm that epitomises the album's excellence.

(BLASTITUDE) Monotract has put out two albums less than a year apart. First in mid-2006 was the acclaimed Xprmntl Lvrs on Ecstatic Peace, which I missed completely, but on my stereo right now is Trueno Oscuro, their early 2007 followup .. Records, and if this is what they're up to now it's no wonder Xprmntl was acclaimed. Opening track “Muddy Thunder” sets a great tone with a staccato electronic futuristic robot rhythm, doubled by live drums, accented by thoughtfully applied bursts of static and subtle Magic Band guitar clipping around the edges, all of which turns out to be a long prelude to something almost totally different, a big-guitar power-anthem with rad 80s punk vocals by Nancy. That's just "Muddy Thunder," but every track on this album ends up being a punk song, it's just that many different styles and approaches are used to get there, from the mysterio-femme tone-poem of "Under My Arm," to "The Ballad of Lechon" (vocals like Dave Byrne if he actually was weird, backed with ripping post-punk echo guitar), the heavy beat street funk (seriously) of "Big N" and "Cafu y Kaka" (you can really hear the Caribbean roots in these jams, almost like steel drums are clipping along with the infernal punk grooves), the amazing electric guitar freenoise coda of "Red Tide".... and so on. I can't tell you how many different weird musical styles from the last 20 years they brilliantly allude to on these seven songs, and it all goes down in a blistering 30 minutes. Yep, not counting the Red Tape, Trueno Oscuro has gotta be Monotract's finest release thus far.

(BOOMKAT)What the f*ck!? Load manage to pull it out of the bag again somehow with this absolutely bat-sh*t crazy piece of ass from Monotract. For those of you up on your noise geekery, you'll no-doubt know that it is a three piece collaboration... What you might not know is just how crushingly good this latest album is, blending so many warring shards of one scene or another that you literally have to pinch yourself to make sure it ain't a dream. This is the sort of music my momma tried to tell me didn't exist - it makes you wanna take up arms and fight for what's wrong, buy a bottle of cheap liquor and use the bottle as a dangerous weapon or simply smash up the place - it's music for debauchery and pillage and we all know what that means. Giffoni's use of electronics is truly inspiring, he manages to extract squeals from his home-made oscillators that many guitarists would be embarrassed by, and every time those bubbles of crispy waveform explode as if from nowhere I get shivers down my spine. Unlike his previous work though, this time his synthplay is used in a punk-pop context - combined with the luscious and deeply sexual vocals from Nancy Garcia it sounds totally out of time and out of the ordinary. When polished off by some heavy punk fretwork from Roger Rimada what we get is the most blistering punk rock record you're likely to hear this year - it's riot grrrl crossed with extreme noise, and in that is automatically my favourite thing ever. This is the sort of album you never think will happen (at least not to this extent), everyone knows in real life your wishes are very rarely granted, but here I've seen them come true - all that's left for me to do now is play this over and over again, very loud indeed. Yes you need to buy this album, now.

(PITCHFORK)When I first saw Monotract at 2004's inaugural No Fun Fest, the trio was hunkered over tables, poking at laptops and twiddling mixer knobs. The setup made sense; since Carlos Giffoni's solo work to that point consisted primarily of electronic-based noise, it figured he would surround himself with like-minded sound-makers in a group setting. It turns out that show was an anomaly-- Monotract's roots actually lie more in fractured punk rock than experimental noise. Since forming in Miami in 1998 (and moving to New York in 2000), they have produced a slew of releases exploring many sonic styles and instrumental configurations. But most often, the group starts from a foundation of guitar, bass, and drums. Last year's Xprmntl Lvrs gave the most balanced version of Monotract's noise/rock amalgam, with punkish beats and semi-melodic vocals grafted to harsh electronics and guitar distortion. Trueno Oscuro (which means "Dark Thunder") also stitches rock and noise into one monstrous hybrid, but leans farther toward the rock side than any previous Monotract release: Nearly every song here has a big, bold beat, supplied by the mix-dominating pound of drummer Roger Rimada. On top of that huge pulse, Giffoni and bassist/vocalist Nancy Garcia spin thorny noise, sauntering bass, and rhythmic vocal chants. This spastic combination can produce oddly funky tunes-- a kind of skewed dance-noise akin to the fractured chug of RTX, the disco damage of Ciccone Youth, or even the hardcore crunch of Atari Teenage Riot. There's also something sultry and even seductive about the way Monotract swings and sways here, especially during the songs sung by Garcia. On "Big N", her breathy half-spoken vocals cascade over Ramada's hip-hop beat like syrup over pancakes, while her urgent yelps at the close of "Muddy Thunder" bewitch like Lydia Lunch's best screams. On the only cut without drums, "Under My Arm", she tentatively whispers over whirring drone, her voice a siren as entrancing as Kim Gordon's on Sonic Youth's "Shadow of a Doubt". When Rimada and Giffoni sing, Monotract's sound gets a little less unpredictable. The marching thump of "Ballad of Lechon", DNA-like stop/start of "Cafu y Kaka", and metallic stomp of "Mar Roja" are all meaty enough on their own, but strung together they feel like blurry photocopies of each other. But whatever repetition Trueno Oscuro suffers from is easily offset by the record's many high points, making for another unique entry in Monotract's rainbow-colored catalog. -Marc Masters, May 18, 2007