Mono In Vcf
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Mono In Vcf

Tacoma, Washington, United States | INDIE

Tacoma, Washington, United States | INDIE
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"YRB MAG I 4 STAR REVIEW"

Taking their name from the swelling, tumescent orchestras of '60s giant Phil Spector and the tones of synthesizer pioneer Robert Moog, Mono In VCF's debut distinguishes itself from not quite being either. Though the Tacoma quintet structures their melodies similarly to the classic pop of Spector, they also build their sound upon the casual cheese of the classic Moog synth. Occasionally vocals are filtered through a vocoder ("Death of a Spark") or they partake in soft-pop breziness ("Spider Rotation"). But most importantly, they keep their hooks intact. - YRB Magazine - August 2008


"Belief in a bright musical future"

Here's a find from the MySpace treasure chest which sometimes opens during nighttime. These songs, especially the fabulous "Spider Rotation" and "Escape City Scrapers" are so full of wonders and deeply emotional they almost tear my heart out. Actually they let me believe in a bright musical future, indeed. So can somebody sign them and send them on a world tour, please? - James Dean Brown, Exotica


"Torr (LA): One of the best new American bands"

Tacoma, Washington's Mono in VCF create haunting, darkly romantic orchestral music that wouldn't be out of place on the soundtrack a '60s Bond film. They're also one of the best new American bands of 2007. They're currently putting the finishing touches on their debut album, which was produced by Martin Feveyear (Jesse Sykes, The Village Green.) Earlier this year Jarvis Cocker chose them to open for him and they'll play the Bumbershoot Fest on Sept 2nd. Let's hope they come play in LA sometime soon. - Torr Leonard, torr.typepad.com


"Obscure Sound (NYC): Mono In VCF... in Stereo"

Ah, Phil Spector. You just have to love the guy. Whether it is his influential production technique found within the “Wall of Sound”, his indisputable influence on contemporary music, or his infamous hairstyle in the courtroom, Spector is a figure whose impact will live on long after his eventual death (or murder conviction). While Spector’s efficacious “Wall of Sound” method of production has been subdued over the years due to the preference of stereo channels, his utilization of echoed strings, orchestral power, and integrable guitars still resonates prominently as a large influence for several new artists. Even so, I rarely hear a band that uses it as successfully as Mono in VCF. Hell, it sounds like only Spector himself could do a better job producing the gripping style found within their tracks. The five-piece knows this just as well and proudly promotes it in the “Mono” aspect of their name, deriving from Spector’s ability to make the most out of mono recording. Since stereo channels were first distributed in 1958, they did not become overwhelmingly popular until the the 70s. In the 50s and 60s, Spector managed to revolutionize music production using only mono. Whereas orchestral accompaniments in previous songs by other producers sounded flat, Spector managed to invigorate the concept with a whole new life through a variety of techniques involving reverb and echo chambers. While Mono in VCF do not go as far to involve mono channels, the influence that Spector has had them makes their sound richly enjoyable. However, do not let that mistake you. Mono in VCF are one of the most original bands I have come across in quite some time.

If you were wondering about the “VCF” aspect of their name, it stands for “voltage-controlled-filter”. For those who are a bit perplexed on the technical terms, it is merely a feature on the majority of Moog synthesizers, another instrumental aspect that is implemented into their style. So, does Mono in VCF manage to incorporate both the “Wall of Sound” and synthesizers into their sound successfully? You bet. While it is entirely possible to compare lead vocalist Kim Miller’s fervently brooding vocals to the those of Goldfrapp and Sarah Nixey or to liken Mono in VCF’s dark and mysterious use of strings to Björk’s more illustrious material, their conclusive stylistic result remains entirely innovative. While they do borrow several components from respectable artists of the past, Mono in VCF’s mixture of these components is what separates them from the masses of indifferent pop bands polluting the music industry. In fact, Miller’s vocals allow the suitability of the band to range dramatically. Songs like “Escape City Scrapers” could fit in a 60s spy film just as effectively as it would in some Ferrari commercial, giving off a vibe of seductive luxuriousness with Miller’s formidable vocals clashing with chilling strings in being the two most conspicuous factors of irresistibility. In fact, it sounds like it would fit perfectly in a Tarantino film with its throwback vibe and vividly depicted emotional baggage. “In an age of decay in the city, I waste my hours away,” Miller soulfully yearns, depicting urbanization as a melancholic symbol of conformity and greed. “The friends I don’t need won’t see me but the rainclouds seem to stay.”

The lead songwriter for Mono in VCF is multi-instrumentalist Jordan Lea, a skilled musician who grew up admiring the lavish string-induced styles of Scott Walker and The Delfonics, the latter being the prime influence for the breathtaking “Spider Rotation”. Based out of Tacoma, Washington, Lea began performing with eventual bassist and co-songwriter Jordan Luckman when they were 17 after discovering a mutual admiration for The Beatles. When Mono in VCF began to establish themselves in 2005 with the release of their debut EP, The Voltage Control EP, their vocalist at the time was Charles Perales. Luckman described Perales to me as being a tremendously skilled singer with a vibrato reminiscent of Scott Walker or Tom Jones. After Perales made the unfortunate decision in 2006 to leave the band due to creative differences, the vocal duties were handed over to Kim Miller as the remaining members began to head into a direction that was more distinctive of psychedelic pop. Despite Perales’ notable contributions to the band’s sound, Miller seems like the perfect fit for this type of production. Her deeply resonating vocals are in a mold that is nearly extinct, flawlessly expelling tales of story-like lyrical narrative as they integrate seamlessly into the ornate backing instrumentation orchestrated by Lea, Luckman, guitarist/keyboardist Dylan Taggart, and drummer Jason Falk.

Considering that Mono in VCF are one of the most enjoyable bands I have listened to this year, it eludes me why they remain unsigned. It should only be a matter of time though. After all, the great Jarvis Cocker is a personal fan. Last April, he hand-picked Mono in VCF to open for him when he played in Seattle. Considering Jarvis’ recent flair for orchestral accompaniments and darkly dramatic attachments on his solo album, I could not have picked a more suitable opener myself. Not often do you hear artists who appreciate and incorporate the stylistic vein of more under-appreciated artists like Scott Walker, The Delfonics, or other hidden gems from the late 60s as well as Mono in VCF do. With their debut album nearly completed, Mono in VCF continues their search for an appropriate label. Whichever lucky label scoops them up first will likely find immediate satisfaction because, quite bluntly, Mono in VCF are in a league of their own. - Mike Mineo, obscuresound.com


"Gorilla vs. Bear: Escape City Scrapers"

Tacoma's Mono in VCF sent me this song from their upcoming LP after learning of my newfound love for overlooked '60s band the Poppy Family. Turns out that the Poppy Family is a major influence on Mono in VCF's dreamy, "Spector put through a Moog synth" psych-pop. In fact, Poppy Family frontman Terry Jacks even helps out on the band's nearly-completed debut record, which includes a spot-on cover of the amazing "There's No Blood in Bone." The album will be finished soon, but in the meantime, we can't get enough of this one, which is a gorgeous modern take on the classic/timeless pop of Nancy & Lee, the Carpenters, Spector, and the like:

mp3:
Mono in VCF Escape City Scrapers

Read more about Mono in VCF at Obscure Sound, and check the band's myspace page to hear the lovely "Masha," on which Terry Jacks contributes background vocals. - Chris Cantalini, Gorilla vs. Bear


"Ear Farm (NYC): Mono In VCF"

ALERT: Mono in VCF's music is so excellent you just might want to skip out on reading anything I've got to say about it and head right down to listen to the three songs posted below. I mean it. Waste no time. Go listen now.

What? You were going to do that anyway? Fair enough, I just had to let you know though, right away, that you might want to skip over the usual pleasantries and cut right to the chase. Because here I'm simply going to write about how wonderful they are, how amazing their lead singer's voice is, and how perfectly they've been able to capture the essence of the mood and style they're aiming for. Don't worry, by the end of the post you'll understand why I immediately fell in love with the three songs posted below but you could find out for yourself by simply listening right away.

Mono in VCF is a five piece band from Tacoma, WA that, believe it or not, is currently without a record label. By my estimation this makes them, oh, ONE OF THE TOP UNSIGNED BANDS IN AMERICA. Seriously, someone get on it and sign these guys. If you're a label person reading this I'll break it down for you in simple terms: they're better than half the bands on your label. You know who already knows this (other than myself)? Jarvis Cocker. He selected the band to open his Seattle tour date in April. Are you listening to "Escape City Scrapers" yet? Makes perfect sense that he'd have picked this band to open for him doesn't it?

Other posts I've read about Mono in VCF waste no time in mentioning Phil Spector in regards to the band and their sound and I can understand why. First of all, they've chosen to name themselves after certain synthesizer terminology/production technique that relates to both Bob Moog and Phil Spector. "Mono in" means, well, mono in. This is an obvious shout out to Phil Spector's mono “Wall of Sound” production techniques and echoes of the band's love of all things Spector can be heard throughout all of their songs. "VCF" stands for voltage-controlled filter which, if I may without sounding too synth-nerdy, is a filter you're likely to find on many analog synthesizers that allows the user to vary the cutoff frequency of the signal to create a wide variety of textures and sounds. Awesome right? HERE are some instructions for how to build your own VCF, if you're into that kind of thing.

Back to the music though, because that's exactly how Mono in VCF so completely grabbed my attention. I've spent a great deal of time longing for more music in my life along the lines of To Bring You My Love, Dummy, So That Tonight I Might See, This Is Hardcore... not music sounding exactly like those albums (though a quick description of Mono in VCF calling them "This Is Hardcore era Pulp as if fronted by Hope Sandoval" would be more than just a wee bit on the money) but rather music that is born of a similar artistic intent. Mono in VCF have touched upon that magical cinematic pop sound we all were hoping to hear when we first learned that Morrissey was to be working with Ennio Morricone. Sadly, that partnership didn't work out very well in the studio. Thankfully Mono in VCF have succeeded where Morrissey and Morricone failed.

This is the sound of lonely romantic yearnings played out through the camera lens of your mind in that hyper-real state that makes everything that passes before your eyes seem as if it were a scene in a movie. It's the sound of sitting alone in the park and watching the orange and yellow leaves float from the branch to the lake, then from the middle of the lake to the shore. It's the classic Phil Spector sound but aged and distilled over time (and now reborn) as if melancholy had never been delivered before with such an honest grasp of pop songcraft. What Mono in VCF presents is a sound perfectly aligned with their influences and an artistic vision as well defined as any I've seen from a band that has yet to even release their debut LP. This band should not be ignored. Excuse me while I go listen to these three songs again. - Matt Tyson


"The Record Reaper says: "MONO IN VCF is the best album of the year""

The best albums of the year: #1 MONO IN VCF - MONO IN VCF I

Darkly beautiful, the music of Mono in VCF melds baroque pop with shoegazer and psychedelic ventures, always with a cosmopolitan appreciation for style and nuance.

On their debut album, the Tacoma, Wash.-based band explore a swirl of love, loss, melancholy and death. The clipped guitar, wet bass plucks and undulations of Moog synthesizer set the tone in opener "Escape City Scrapers" as singer Kim Miller imagines liberating herself from rainclouds and concrete. The mood is cool but sensuous and unhurried, like a lucid dream unfolding.

This mood permeates the next two tracks, "Spider Rotation" and "Masha." In the plaintive "Masha," Miller sings, "I thought I felt a feeling / but my daydream hit the ceiling."

The words sprang from the mind of Hunter Lea, the band's principal songwriter. Lea leaves the vocals to Miller, except for on "In Los Angeles," a Nancy-and-Lee-style ballad in which he duets with her. The other male voice, which appears on two songs, belongs to Terry Jacks, who co-founded the '70s band the Poppy Family. Mono in VCF pay tribute to him by covering his song "There's No Blood in Bone," the album's midpoint.

The sequencing on Mono in VCF enhances the song cycle, moving from synths to acoustic guitar and back, taking into account tempo and texture. "In Los Angeles" scuffs out a groove. "There's No Blood in Bone" whips up a froth. And the majesty of "Chanteuse" calms it down before the dire kismet of "Death of a Spark" sets in.

Standout "The Only One" is built to captivate, with its bass tones and a music-box-style piano ascending and descending like Escher's famous stairway image.

"If you wanna rip my heart out, go ahead
Go, get on, get it over with
If the sight of blood should make you sick
I'll do my best to bleed under my skin"

The way Miller's seductive vocals glide through torture suggests a gallows humor, and the lyrics reinforce the track's circularity. In the first chorus, it's "I know you're not the only one for me"; but in the second chorus, that changes to "You know you're not the only one for me." This opens a range of possibilities.

Perhaps it's a lover confronted with infidelity, or a different kind of betrayal. Perhaps the second chorus is her response. Perhaps the first chorus is a discovery or a personal revelation and the second chorus signifies a transference of knowledge. Perhaps she told him; perhaps he came to the conclusion on his own. Perhaps the betrayal is double-sided.

The final chorus is even more provocative:

I know I'm not the only one
I know you're not the only one
You know you're not the only one
for me

It's like a movie with a scene lost on the cutting-room floor.

And all the better for it. - The Record Reaper, therecordreaper.blogspot.com


"Tacoma band goes back to the future with modern and 60s tech"

The Tacoma-based rising stars of Mono In VCF create a dreamy, orchestral, neo-psychedelic sound that immediately draws you into its sonic slipstream.

The Beatles, Lee Hazlewood, the Delfonics, Arthur Brown, David Axelrod and Terry Jacks of Vancouver, B.C., group the Poppy Family ("Seasons in the Sun" and "Which Way You Goin' Billy?") are among the artists influencing the band's soulful retro-pop.

Last fall, the five-member band (featuring seductive lead vocalist Kim Miller) staged a laser-music show at the Pacific Science Center, allowing fans to hear its latest music in a controlled environment instead of a loud bar. The laser show was a huge success, helping whet appetites for a follow-up to the group's 2005 debut EP, "The Voltage Control."

Mono In VCF's new, self-titled album came out in February on the band's own STYLOMusic label and will make its national debut June 17 through a distribution deal with Seattle's Light in the Attic Records. Later this year, the band plans to tour the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Greece and Japan.

The group's next performance is Saturday at High Dive. A KEXP Audioasis live remote broadcast with The Dimes begins at 6:30 p.m. (doors open at 5 p.m.), followed by a showcase at 9:30 p.m. with Transmissionary Six, A Gun That Shoots Knives and Cancer Rising. Proceeds from the concert benefit the Seattle Public Library Foundation.

In addition to Miller, whom the band found through Craigslist, the band includes Jordan Luckman (bass), Hunter Lea (guitar, keyboards) and Jason Falk (drums).

Mono In VCF takes its name from what Luckman describes as "a clash of two different eras."

"Phil Spector's mono(aural), 'Wall of Sound' production that we love and the late Dr. Robert Moog and his (synthesizers)," Luckman explained in an e-mail.

"VCF (voltage-controlled filter) is a feature on the synths, and the synths have always been a crucial part of our sound. The name was thought to be a collision of sounds that creates something new and weird, while being influenced by the old."

Luckman and Lea, who met at Puyallup High School while working on the student newspaper, shared a mutual admiration for the Beatles.

"We are mainly influenced by the music of the late 1960s," Luckman said.

"We tried to create a modern band that sounded at once classic and futuristic."

Mono In VCF developed its sound over several years -- and with two separate lead singers. The band's 2005 EP featured Charles Perales.

The group's gorgeous melodies and complex wall of sound -- melancholy and multilayered -- owe a lot to Jacks of the Poppy Family.

"We became great friends with Terry during the recording of this album," Luckman said. "He came down from British Columbia to sing on two tracks, as well as one of his lesser-known songs, 'There's No Blood in Bone.' The plan is to continue working with him in the future."

Jacks was an important collaborator in the studio. Sessions were filmed for a short documentary the group will release later. While mixing the album, Jacks and Martin Feveyear used a technique called "discreet panning."

"It was used in the mid-'60s when stereo recordings started to boom over mono," Lea said via e-mail. "Bands started mixing records for stereo, utilizing two channels instead of one to create 'far out' sounds."

Feveyear -- who co-produced the new album with Lea and helped shape the band's sound -- will play keyboards with the band at High Dive (along with guest musicians Scott Clarke and George Reid-Harmon). As a producer and mixer, he has worked with Queens of the Stone Age, Amber Pacific, Blue Scholars, Brandi Carlile, Mark Lanegan and the Presidents of the United States of America, among others.

"The great thing about working with Martin is that he gets inside the heads of the bands he's working with," Lea said. "Martin's goal is to guide a band to reach their vision and potential.

"When we first started working with him, we told him what kind of record we wanted to make -- something very different and strange, using lost '60s recording techniques, as well as made-up, futuristic ones.

"We would say, 'We want this drum fill to sound like Ringo on "Abbey Road",' and he would say, 'Well, I've got this compressor from 1969, the same model used at EMI studios. Let's try it.' Our recording process went pretty much like that. There was lots of creative energy between us. We were always pushing each other's ideas further and further." - The Seattle Times - April 2008


"Bag of Songs says: "Fearlessly futuristic. One of the year's best""

Wow. When was the last time you dropped on an album for the first time and it instantly transported you to another place? Tacoma, Washington's Mono In VCF have created a majestic masterpiece for their debut album which does just that. With a name cobbled together from Phil Spector's Wall Of Sound (Mono) and Moog Synthesizer tones (VCF), their music has been described as "Drifting in space between psychedelic Beatles and Massive Attack". Cinematic in scope, with lush orchestration and the smooth, soaring vocals of Kim Miller, it sounds fearlessly futuristic and reminiscient of the great film soundtrack music of the sixties all at once. But don't just take my word for it, pop on a pair of headphones, turn it up and let one of the year's best records take you on a trip and make you a believer.

Mono In VCF is out June 17th in the US and available digitally on iTunes now. The album was produced by Martin Feveyear and also includes a special guest appearance by Terry Jacks. - Tom Szwech, bagofsongs.blogspot.com (PA) - June 2008


"VH1's Best Week Ever programs their VCF"

Mono in VCF is so awesome, Ear Farm suggests skipping their writeup and just downloading the songs immediately. I share their enthusiasm, but I don’t think I’d ever advise my readers to skip my amazing band-themed one liners. So, um… How bout this Mono in VCF? Are you kidding? I can’t even program my Mono in VCR!!! Eh?? Ok. Now you can download the songs. - VH1's Best Week Ever blog


Discography

The Voltage Control EP (2005)
MONO IN VCF I (2008)

Photos

Bio

"Fearlessly futuristic. Turn it up and let one of the year's best records (2008) take you on a trip and make you a believer."
-Bag of Songs

"****"
-YRB Magazine

"Drifting in space somewhere between psychedelic Beatles & Massive Attack."
-The Seattle Times

"A timeless record that wouldn't seem out of place in any decade."
-To Die By Your Side (UK)