From techno seeds we first planted comes Mononegatives. The London, Ontario bands’ debut ‘Apparatus Division‘ begins with a wave of buzzing synths and droning guitars, creating a surge of nervous energy. By the time the drums and bass are in, everything explodes from the speakers with a jagged fury and things don’t let up for another 25 minutes or so.
‘Apparatus Division‘ is a chaotic blast of robotic synth punk, that sounds like a garage punk band recording in front of an idling jet. The demented, robotic vocals, (it seems they have a Dalek as the lead singer) give it all an off-kilter touch, gift-wrapped with hooks that are off the charts. Lyrically the 12 tracks have an unhinged Black Mirror bent, with themes of automation, technology, alienation, boredom, and suburbia. Don’t sleep on this one.
Out now on No Front Teeth Records and Big Neck Records.
Mononegatives was recently nominated for Punk Band of the Year (they lost) but we connected with the band for a very short Q&A:
Who are you guys?
We are Mononegatives. Rob is Mon, David oneg, Jon ati, and Aaron is ves.
What music are you listening to that inspires the kind of mania we hear on Apparatus Division?
We have been listening to the Go Team, Human League, Swell Maps, Bruce Springsteen, Prince, Incapacitants, Guided By Voices, Masonna, and the Terminator 2 theme song.
Mononegatives were nominated for an award…?
Us not winning the award is the biggest injustice since the Montreal Screwjob at the 1997 Survivor Series. We voted for ourselves hundreds of times, the puppet master Vince McMahon did to us what he did to The Excellence of Execution. Not winning that award proves that we worked our way into a shoot.
What have you been up to during the COVID bullshit?
Creating the website Onlycans. You pay us money and we chug beers. Also attempting to write new music. We also created the 5G chips that go into the Covid vaccine, our next album comes bundled inside your second Covid dose.
Tell us about the kind of gear do you use?
New synth every other week through the Roland JC-120 (x3). We don’t use much gear, we download all of our music off Reverbnation and just put our name on it all. But we also use: Traynor TS-100, Acoustic 135, Alesis SR18, Guitar, Bass, Drums, Effects Pedals, Sticks, Picks, Stings, Patch Cords, etc etc etc.