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Sixth Extinction

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Exploding Monsters – s/t. 2004. In the late 1970’s, there was a unique French label called FLVM, which released an array of self-produced, highly interesting progressive and electronic albums (FLVM is an acronym that basically translates to Do It Yourself). In many ways, I can see a group like New Jersey’s Exploding Monsters added on to the FLVM stable if they were still around. This is a side project for a collective called Science Friction, which specialize in dark and alien soundtrack music. While “Sorcerers” era Tangerine Dream might seem an easy comparison, especially on songs like ‘Wonderous Strange’, Exploding Monsters generally lean towards a rougher sound. ‘Necessary Evil’, ‘Epoch of Decay’, ‘Veil of Existence’ and ‘Dali in Delusion’ are good examples of what I would imagine to be their particular soundtrack style. ‘Hallucigenia’ is a high energy romp with a strong in-yer-face sequencer electronics approach (though not Berlin School). The low budget organ sound with hand percussion found on ‘The Truth in Evolution’ and ‘Erotic Vapors’ is another signpost that EM (clever, eh?) are well-schooled with knowledge of another era and sound. The former track is probably my favorite on the album. I know it can be frustrating to read about obscure references, but this track just screams of the immortal Flamen Dialis.  ‘Embalmed’ and ‘Neander Thaw’ (great title) reminds the listener that this is indeed 2004, with some metal edged guitar, Crimson leads, real drums and spacey electronics. For those familiar with the Dutch group Kong, then you know to expect that kind of sound here. ‘Le Predateur’ recalls classic period Heldon with foreboding heavy guitar and bass / drum accompaniment. The album ends on a relatively sunny note with ‘When It All Ends in Fire’. Exploding Monsters are at their best, at least in an album setting, when deviating from the soundtrack styled keyboard music and focusing on more diverse instrumentation. Definitely recommended to those who like adventurous electronic music with rock embellishments."

Thanks!

 

Tom Hayes

Yes I did [listen to the Exploding Monsters CD] - some very cool stuff - are you a fan of Hawkwind?  Thought I heard some space rock / cosmic influences in there.  I'm a big fan of the Hawks early work.

All the best
SW


          

Exploding Monsters are the duo of George Martindell - electric & acoustic percussion, sound design and Foley, and Frank Sonsini - guitars, guitar synth, synthesizers, sound design and Foley. The music they give us is primarily of the electronic soundscapes variety, but with a few unexpected twists. They throw in a little ambient here, a touch of avant-garde there.  A little science-fiction-movie-soundtrack-music, then an unexpectedly aggressive guitar sound.  Though there are a lot of artists whose music this CD makes me think of briefly, EM have a surprisingly fresh take on the genre.  One could certainly point to artists such as Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Fripp & Eno, a.o. as being obvious influences, but the whole thing is put together in such a way that no one influence ever really takes over.  Some will hear bands such as Hawkwind, Nektar or Gong in the more 'rock' parts, but EM are not trying to be anyone but themselves; and the mix of real drums with synthetic percussion (all apparently played by human hands) gives this a much more organic feel than most electronic projects!  This self-produced CDR is done very well with nice sci-fi style artwork and, while obviously homemade, the sound quality is very good, too.

Steve
ZNR Records

 

Exploding Monsters is a duo consisting of George Martindell (electric & acoustic percussion), and Frank Sonsini (guitars, guitar synth, synthesizers). They create a electronic, ambient avant guard soundtrackish music. Some of the tracks sound like they can be mini soundtracks to imaginary horror or sci-fi movies. Most of the music is dark electronica vibe, while some have aggressive almost metal guitar parts. Basically they can create any sound for any mood. Even with it’s homemade look, the music and packaging has a very high quality.

Their music remind me of the soundtrack work of Fabio Frizzi and Goblin as well as Daemonia, Systems Theory, Ghosts of Pompeii, Zombi and Erik Norlander’s electronic work (Threshold and Seas Of Orion). Just remember that these are merely referential points to help you, the listener get a idea as to what style of music Exploding Monsters falls under.

Most of the songs are under 5 minutes and yet feel more epic. There’s no one favorite song I have, because each song contains elements of music that I enjoy. Hopefully we’ll hear a lot more from Exploding Monsters. I know I will return often to this album for years to come. So if you enjoy the aforementioned bands then Exploding Monsters is a must own release!

Reviewed by Ron Fuchs on November 15th, 2005

Cindy Koscinski:  Please give a background history of how Exploding Monsters came to be?

George Martindell:  Exploding Monsters is a side project we started in 2004 in order to incorporate some of the prog rock, ambient, and hard rock styles that at times the both of us don’t often get to use in our usual composing, that we record in our scoring and sound design situations.

Frank and I started out together in an all original hard rock band called Nasty Canasta that had prog/metal influences in the 90’s. In this band, we had written, recorded and incorporated a few instrumental songs that were at times, I suppose, close to the style of what Exploding Monsters is, only now we have added to the mix synths, guitar synth, and a wide array of electronic drums.  We have also become a bit more "atmospheric" and "spacey" in our writing and thinking process when it comes to this genre.

In our company, Science Friction Scoring / Sound Design, the two of us don’t often get the chance to write in these formats, since our music at times is written for mediums such as film and animation.  We write music of any style for these formats, often being orchestral, ethnic, and techno, for example, and at times the music is very challenging to write.

We wanted to focus a bit more on the musical roots that inspired us the most through the years.  I always admired bands and artists like Goblin and Tangerine Dream, as they were at times both prog / rock bands and soundtrack composers, as well.

CK:  How do you go about creating music for EM? Do you and Frank develop ideas separately and then come together to form songs or does your music develop with the two of you in an improvisational style?

GM:  When we get together to write and record, we first discuss what direction that particular session is going to take on.  Sometimes we decide on a dark and heavy session, other times it can be a minimalistic and spacey one.  Since we have access to our own studio at any time, we are able to take our time and talk about developing such ideas.

Frank will then choose if he will play guitar, guitar synth, or just the synthesizers by themselves in which case I will choose what drum sounds I will be using.  Frank’s guitar synth is such a remarkable instrument.  For example, he can choose to play the guitar as a ‘string section’ or ‘violin’ if he desires.  It also can double as a synthesizer, and he plays it like a guitar.  Including the guitar synth, and the guitar itself, there also is a wide array of synthesizers that he chooses from to create with.

My electronic drums are actually four drum sets in one, as I utilize four different brain modules to mix together various percussive situations.  For example, I will choose rock drums for the main kit, and select African hand drums, synth-like sound effects, and Asian gongs for the other three drum sources, and then play them all at once as "one" drum set.  I also use acoustic percussion such as real cymbals, chimes, shakers, and other assorted percussion that I have collected over the years during these recording sessions.  Sometimes the drums don’t even sound like percussion at all.  I may choose to program the drums as various “sounds,” and then play rhythmic beats of those sounds…never do we use a drum machine.  That would be the easy way!

Then we find a groove, rhythm or riff that feels good and take it from there and start to record in an improvisational manor - right off the floor.  There may be occasions where in which we feel a bass line, a guitar solo, chimes, or some strange vocal background should be added as an overdub, but for the most part, we are improvisational.

The recording sessions for the debut Exploding Monsters CD were often fueled by emotions, as at the time there were people close to us passing away in both of our families, and that seemed to really bring out some of our darker and morose feelings when it came to writing the music during those sessions.

CK:  There is a dark, melancholy to this CD. There also seems to be a little edge of humor. At times, some of the sound effects remind me of classic sci-fi movies and the curious intro to “Le Predateur” comes to mind.  Considering what was going on at the time, has creating EM been a positive experience for you both and how has the response been since the release of your debut?

GM:  Thanks for noticing the humor!  We have always tried to incorporate emotions such as sadness, happiness, mournfulness, and humor, into our music and sound design.

Frank and I recorded all those sound effects, or Foley, as they are called in the film production business, over the past few years.  We had a lot of fun recording those sounds, and we recorded everything including the kitchen sink – literally!  Anything from shaking globby shampoo bottles, to me talking into one of Frank’s child’s toys, we recorded and have on file for use in case a video game producer or filmmaker needs certain sounds for a production.  We have quite an extensive sound library.

At the time we recorded some of those sound effects that are on the EM CD, we happened to record the sounds of a rare species of tree frog that once flourished an area of woods near our studio one night when it happened to be thundering and raining.  There has since been development there, and now unfortunately there are no longer frogs. Very depressing quite frankly… at least now we have them recorded for posterity!

I had always fancied when artists and bands had used sound effects to link all the tracks on a record together, so I thought the Exploding Monsters CD would be a great place to try it.

Frank and I are two of the silliest people I know!  Because our music is very serious, and we take our music very seriously, we often like to include some humor in it from time to time, as it is another part of our personalities.  Even through the trials and tribulations of life that we have both faced, one of us is always trying to make the other laugh to lighten things up a bit.  I blame it on too many years of watching episodes of Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Bugs Bunny cartoons! (laughs)

There have been times were in which we would record full sessions with the focus on, for example, “silly” sounding music.  This especially came in handy, as we had been working with an animator who needed such a style in some of his productions recently.  Other sessions and areas we focused on writing music based on emotions has been angry, happy, mellow, etc.

Yes, recording this CD was a very positive one.  Music is such a great creative outlet and is such an emotional healing tool.  It’s always a positive thing when you are able to write and record music!

The response to the Exploding Monsters CD has been really good, even though the music and ambience is so dark and strange.  For this we are really surprised and happy!  The music is being played on a lot of various prog / rock radio stations currently where it has also been well received.

We’ve also been happy and fortunate to receive a couple of great reviews and support from legendary artists such as Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree and Jim Gilmour from Saga who are friends of ours, and who have been influential to us over the years.

We’ve also received nice reviews and comments from people who really know our genre of music, and some from fans whom have always enjoyed our music.  There have even been nice words from people who aren’t often exposed to music such as ours, which is also interesting to hear.

A lot of people have been asking us lately how our new CD is coming along, and seem to be really anticipating it’s release.  We have finished recording the music for it, and hope to have it completed by this summer.

Our families and closest friends are the ones who say to us, “Man, you guys write some evil and weird sounding music!“ (laughs)

CK:  There is a track available to listen to at your website called “Sixth Extinction” which is not on your debut CD.  Is this track going to be included on your next release?

GM:  We recorded that track for The Progressive Rock Collectors “ The PRC Sampler” CD a few years ago that was sold and distributed through their community and web site.

”Sixth Extinction” was officially our first Exploding Monsters recording, and it was a great honor to be asked to be a part of that project.  It contained a great collection of bands and artists, including the instrumental project from the legendary drummer of Queensryche, Scott Rockenfield, with Rockenfield/Speer; French TV; and Easter Island to name a few.

So yes, there may be a good chance that “Sixth Extinction” may be included as a bonus track on our next release as the theme of the CD is "evolution and science..." thanks for the suggestion!

CK:  You’re welcome.  It’s a fine track, worthy of inclusion.  A theme for your next release, that’s interesting.  Can you share anything else about this?

GM:  I have been an evolutionist since childhood, and I am still amazed every day by the facts that the scientific community offers us.

The title of the next release, “Anthro Apology" will have a theme of dinosaurs, early man, existence, the universe, and so on.  These are all areas which I am so fascinated by, and being that the debut release contained music that was avant-garde, heavy and dark, on this one we chose to be a bit more structured and spacey and write material with those specific topics and ideas in mind.

Frank had felt that we should focus more on songs as opposed to adding sound effects and such this time around.

Don’t get me wrong.  The music we wrote for “Anthro Apology" is still "dark" in nature… no pun intended! (laughing)

CK:  You mentioned Goblin and Tangerine Dream as inspiration.  What other music are you and Frank listening to these days?

GM:  My listening moods change from day to day.  Currently, I have been listening to music that myself and an old friend, Steve Siers (a/k/a Quad ) have been creating now for over ten years in our project, “Cosmic Testicles.”

We record about twice a month at his studio, and it involves me on acoustic drum kit and some electronic drums, with Quad utilizing a vast myriad of synthesizers. The music is very spacey, rhythmic, and strange.

When Frank joins us we become “Aliens, Ghosts and Demons.”  Using the same format of instruments, but only this time we add Frank’s guitar and bass playing to the musical mix.  The music then of course becomes a bit more heavy!

I listen to a lot of Swedish death metal, bands such as Opeth , At The Gates, and Meshuggah.  I really enjoy Opeth.  They are such a great band, and employ a wide range of musical elements to their music.  Also, I am currently enjoying the series of CD re-releases from legendary electronic musician Klaus Schulze, the recent new releases of jazz guitar greats Al DiMeola and Pat Metheny, Kate Bush’s “Aerial“ is fantastic and well worth the years of waiting, the CD “Free ” from the band OSI, Tool’s fabulous new CD, and anything from Steve Vai and Frank Zappa!

In the classical genre, I have been focusing on Saint-Saens, Shostakovich, and soprano Sarah Brightman’s works.

The music of the trio Terje Rypdal, Miroslav Vitous, and Middle Eastern percussionist Trilok Gurtu is outstanding stuff - so creative and rhythmic!  They have a DVD, “Live in Stuttgart“ that is just fantastic.