THE MON: Eye LP From Ufomammut Solo Project Featuring Guests From Neurosis, Amenra, The Otolith, And White Hills Streaming At The Obelisk; Album Out Tomorrow On Supernatural Cat

May 25, 2023 Infrared Magazine Music News, News, Press Releases Comments Off

photos by Francesca De Franceschi Manzoni

Eye is the second album from THE MON, the solo project of Ufomammut bassist/vocalist Urlo, also featuring guests from Neurosis, Amenra, White Hills, The Otolith, and more. The record is streaming today at The Obelisk on the eve of its official release through Supernatural Cat Records.

In comparison to its predecessor, Doppelleben, THE MONâs Eye LP is more introspective and denser, the new record built around electronic soundscapes and acoustic atmospheres that take you on a sonic journey where the songs flow nonstop into one another. While Urlo performs the entire musical foundation of the album, he is joined by a cast of special guests, with vocal/lyrical contributions from Steve Von Till (Neurosis), Colin H. Van Eeckhout (Amenra), and Francesca De Franceschi Manzoni, as well as violins from Sarah Pendleton (Subrosa, The Otolith), and guitars from David W (White Hills).

Eye was written, performed, produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Urlo at The Howl, Italy, and the artwork completed by the Malleus Rock Art Lab collective. While choosing a singular genre for THE MONâs Eye is surely a difficult challenge, one could classify the album as heavy dark folk electronic.

Urlo writes, âIâm so excited and grateful for this second album of mine, under the monicker THE MON: Eye. Itâs a new path opening for me. I feel these songs differently from everything I did before. I love to play them in every way, with just an acoustic guitar or with effects and layers. Iâm so thankful to all the great artists that helped me in creating Eye for what it is â Steve, Colin, Sarah, Dave, and Francesca â but also, all the friends that gave me suggestions and help when I was creating the songs and mixing the album. Iâm working on bringing the tracks to a live setting now, and I hope I will be on the road with these new songs, so, Iâll see you very soon.â

The Obelisk writes in part within the detailed review of Eye accompanying their advance stream of the album, â…THE MON declares itself clearly in this material, but the clarity is in the act of feeling its way through the songs. Many artists will tell you they didnât know where a song was going until it got there. There are moments in Eye that seem genuinely born out of that kind of experience, and the overarching impression is still one of forward growth to come, whatever that might mean in a context thatâs already demonstrated such breadth and an ability to pivot in sound from one release to the next. The outer-reaches vocal chanting of âThe Manure of Our Remains,â the sweet and ethereal winding of the violin and synth of âThe Sun,â and the ideas-parade that caps, along with the fluidity of personnel and the general variation of sonic purpose give Eye a scope that goes beyond the hearing, but it remains emotionally resonant however far out it goes, and so its kaleidoscopic intimacy is cohesive when met on its own level.â

**Listen to THE MONâs Eye in its expansive entirety early through The Obelisk now at THIS LOCATION.**

Supernatural Cat will release Eye on limited 12â Blue and Red vinyl variants, digipak CD, and all digital services this Friday, May 26th. Find preorders at the label webshop HERE and Bandcamp HERE, and see the videos for âWhereâ HERE, âConfessionâ HERE, and âTo The Onesâ HERE.

THE MON is the solo project of Urlo, who is most widely known as the lead vocalist, bassist, synth player and one of the founding members of the heavy psych Italian band Ufomammut. He is also one of the three minds behind the poster art trio Malleus Rock Art Lab, and one of the operators of Supernatural Cat Records. The aim of THE MON is to reach the boundaries of a spiritual soundscape in which the music becomes purification and atonement, a way to bring out the world that is inside the human soul. Where Ufomammut creates mind-expanding, heavy psychedelic, almost other-dimensional sounds, THE MON is far more intimate, looking inward, as Urlo explores and examines his innermost thoughts through music. THE MON builds layers of brooding sounds which sometimes unfurl at a glacial pace and other times lurch with rhythmic propulsion, each piece distinct, densely packed, and all-consuming in their evocative atmospheres.

THE MON released its debut LP, Doppelleben, in 2018, and has since released a digital audio/video EP My Rotten Heart featuring Colin H. Van Eeckhout (Amenra). Now, 2023 sees the project prepared to release its second LP, Eye.