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Rock 'N Roll
Monkey & the Robots: Detroit Trauma
Rock n Roll Monkey and the Robots. The name itself should just about sum up what you can expect from this album. This is lo-fi garage weirdness. The most catching aspect is the vocals, relaxed and unstrained. The music bends towards psychedelic pop at times, but for the most part its just raw, garaged rock n roll punk in its DIY, tape-deck aesthetic. Craig Campbell wrote that he feels his guitar playing isnt too far from one of those tin, monkey robots with the little wire guitar attached to it. Hence the name, and after listening to this a few times, I could not think of a more fitting moniker. This album started as a low-key calling card of demos for Craig to shop around to bands he was auditioning with; Detroit Trauma was scrawled on the label, and over time he began seeing it as a realized album that he did not want to mess with too much. Originally, the idea was that these were sketches to eventually go back and work on. The looseness definitely can be felt throughout the album, but it works in a charming way, best if remembered it came from a cassette tape. The 4-track demos were mastered later on, and the background noise and instrumentation were tossed on, fleshing everything out a bit more. At times it reminds me of an album off the In the Red label in their psych-freak-lo-fi-garage repertoire, and at other times its got a creepy, B-movie vibe to it. Maybe even a sub-B-movie somewhere down there where the director/writer/actor/set designer/choreographer/caterer got his buddy/himself to sit down at a 4-track and bang away at some noise-scaping. Although I dont mean that in a negative way, it is still a bit unfair, as these are (for the most part) fully realized, individual songs. If youre a collector of all things lo-fi and weird, this is for you. Pick it up before its lost forever into obscurity. It did make me feel kinda weird and lethargic, but pretty good. If reviewers hate Trauma, I hope they will give the next one a chance! Campbell remarks on the press sheet. Apparently, theyre already in the process of recording and piecing a more hi-fi album together. Ill be checking it out! Tracks of interest: Destroy Everything, Sadie and Toss It Back Like Kerouac, though theyre all growing on me.
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