''Formica Blues'' is the only album by English

trip hop Trip hop (sometimes used synonymously with "downtempo") is a musical genre that originated in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom, especially Bristol. It has been described as a psychedelic music, psychedelic fusion of hip hop music, hip hop ...

duo

Mono Mono may refer to: Common meanings * Infectious mononucleosis, "the kissing disease" * Monaural, monophonic sound reproduction, often shortened to mono * Mono-, a numerical prefix representing anything single Music Performers * Mono (Japanese b ...

. It was first released in the UK in 1997. Four singles were released from the album, of which the lead single, " Life in Mono", was the most successful. The album reached #71 in the UK album charts and remained on the chart for 1 week. In the United States, the album reached 137 on the ''Billboard'' 200 and remained on the chart for 7 weeks.

Overview

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...

'' summarizes the "basic formula" of the album as to wallow in the sound of television and film theme tunes of the Sixties and Seventies, but both to embellish and underpin it with

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

breakbeats Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that tends to use drum breaks sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as hip hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat hardcore, and UK g ...

and

Massive Attack Massive Attack are an English trip hop collective formed in 1988 in Bristol by Robert "3D" Del Naja, Adrian "Tricky" Thaws, Andrew "Mushroom" Vowles and Grant "Daddy G" Marshall. The debut Massive Attack album ''Blue Lines'' was release ...

synthy atmospheres". The use of

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...

melody mirrors John Barry's film scores of the 1960s by design (and by sampling), though it has also been compared to themes for 1970s action adventure television shows such as ''

The Protectors ''The Protectors'' is a British television series, an action thriller created by Gerry Anderson. It was Anderson's second TV series to exclusively use live actors as opposed to marionettes (following ''UFO''), and his second to be firmly set in ...

'' and ''

The Zoo Gang ''The Zoo Gang'' is a 1974 ITC Entertainment drama series that ran for six one-hour colour episodes, based on the 1971 book of the same name by Paul Gallico. Plot Five French Resistance fighters, known by their animal-based code names (the Wol ...

''. "Slimcea Girl" took its title from Slimcea, a low-calorie bread sold in the UK during what has been reported as either the 1960s or the 1970s; the "girl" was one featured in the Slimcea TV ads, which featured a jingle inviting the viewer to be a "Slimcea girl"."Show them (show them) you're a Slimcea girl / You're a slim girl in a new and exciting world!" Another inspiration was

Julie Christie Julie Frances Christie (born 14 April 1940) is a British actress. An icon of the Swinging Sixties, Christie is the recipient of numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. S ...

's character in the film version of ''

Billy Liar ''Billy Liar'' is a 1959 novel by Keith Waterhouse that was later adapted into a play, a film, a musical and a TV series. The work has inspired and been featured in a number of popular songs. The semi-comical story is about William Fisher, ...

'', whom Virgo described as a " liberated" "

It girl An "it girl" is an attractive young woman, who is perceived to have both sex appeal and a personality that is especially engaging. The expression ''it girl'' originated in British upper-class society around the turn of the 20th century. ...

", saying, "I just found it a powerful image". The song has been called "a cynical stare at the dreams and fantasies of those people who live behind the blinds f Suburbia">Suburb.html" ;"title="f Suburb">f Suburbia"; musically, it has been described as reminiscent of

Burt Bacharach Burt Freeman Bacharach ( ; born May 12, 1928) is an American composer, songwriter, record producer and pianist who composed hundreds of pop songs from the late 1950s through the 1980s, many in collaboration with lyricist Hal David. A six-time Gra ...

, gospel music (in its use of backing vocals arranged like a choir), and "a Motown Records, Tamla torch song". "The Outsider" is noted for a

hammered dulcimer The hammered dulcimer (also called the hammer dulcimer) is a percussion-stringed instrument which consists of strings typically stretched over a trapezoidal resonant sound board. The hammered dulcimer is set before the musician, who in more trad ...

part, which Virgo had written on a synthesizer, imagined with a dulcimer sound; he subsequently called a dulcimer player ( Geoff Smith) to play the part. "High Life" has been compared to the music of 1960s

girl group A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female pop music singing groups, many of who ...

s like

The Ronettes The Ronettes were an American girl group from Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York City. The group consisted of lead singer Veronica Bennett (later known as Ronnie Spector), her older sister Estelle Bennett, and their cousin Nedra Talley. The ...

, whose production by

Phil Spector Harvey Phillip Spector (born Harvey Philip Spector; December 26, 1939January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter, best known for his innovative recording practices and entrepreneurship in the 1960s, followed decades later by ...

is cited by Virgo as a style he wanted to incorporate and update. "Hello Cleveland!", a complex instrumental, was titled after a line from ''

This Is Spinal Tap ''This Is Spinal Tap'' (also known as ''This Is Spınal Tap: A Rockumentary by Martin Di Bergi'') is a 1984 American mockumentary film co-written and directed by Rob Reiner (in his feature directorial debut). The film stars Christopher Guest, M ...

''. Virgo used the title ironically; taken from a stereotypical "

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...

" context, it was then placed on a song that "wasn't very rock and roll". It is also the most musically

esoteric Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas a ...

song on the album; a paper in music journal ''Echo'' by Sara Nicholson, presented at the sixty-seventh annual meeting of the

American Musicological Society The American Musicological Society (AMS) is a musicological organization which researches, promotes and produces publications on music. Founded in 1934, the AMS was begun by leading American musicologists of the time, and was crucial in legitim ...

, pinpoints a number of uncredited classical recordings sampled at certain points in the song. Primarily these are works by the three principal composers of the

Second Viennese School The Second Viennese School (german: Zweite Wiener Schule, Neue Wiener Schule) was the group of composers that comprised Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils, particularly Alban Berg and Anton Webern, and close associates in early 20th-century Vienna. ...

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...

Anton Webern Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern (3 December 188315 September 1945), better known as Anton Webern (), was an Austrian composer and conductor whose music was among the most radical of its milieu in its sheer concision, even aphorism, and stea ...

, and

Alban Berg Alban Maria Johannes Berg ( , ; 9 February 1885 – 24 December 1935) was an Austrian composer of the Second Viennese School. His compositional style combined Romantic lyricism with the twelve-tone technique. Although he left a relatively sma ...

; Virgo cites the school as among his musical influences. (Also see the Samples section.) The paper also analyzes the overall structure of the song: it opens with a guitar

arpeggio A broken chord is a chord broken into a sequence of notes. A broken chord may repeat some of the notes from the chord and span one or more octaves. An arpeggio () is a type of broken chord, in which the notes that compose a chord are played ...

followed by a solo piano composition (noted as being "strikingly similar to

Erik Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an und ...

's '' Gnossienne#1 in f''"), along with a 5/4 drum loop. About one minute into the song, the bulk of the samples are introduced by a one-second sample from the fifth movement of

Luciano Berio Luciano Berio (24 October 1925 – 27 May 2003) was an Italian composer noted for his experimental work (in particular his 1968 composition ''Sinfonia'' and his series of virtuosic solo pieces titled ''Sequenza''), and for his pioneering work ...

's ''

Sinfonia Sinfonia (; plural ''sinfonie'') is the Italian word for symphony, from the Latin ''symphonia'', in turn derived from Ancient Greek συμφωνία ''symphōnia'' (agreement or concord of sound), from the prefix σύν (together) and ϕωνή (sou ...

'', which is repeated intermittently throughout this section. The beat stops in the last minute of the song, which returns to the piano motif, fading out. The album cover and

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes. Origin Liner notes are desce ...

artwork, designed by an art student, consist of abstract collages incorporating photography of the surroundings of London.

Recording and production

Vocals were recorded, alternately, on an AKG C12 and a Neumann U 87 microphone, depending on the vocal range desired;

compression Compression may refer to: Physical science *Compression (physics), size reduction due to forces *Compression member, a structural element such as a column *Compressibility, susceptibility to compression *Gas compression *Compression ratio, of a c ...

and equalization during the mixing process created a noticeably processed sound to the vocals.

Analog synthesizer An analog (or analogue) synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses analog circuits and analog signals to generate sound electronically. The earliest analog synthesizers in the 1920s and 1930s, such as the Trautonium, were built with a variety of ...

s were predominantly used over digital ones; those used by producer and engineer Jim Abbiss include a

Roland Roland (; frk, *Hrōþiland; lat-med, Hruodlandus or ''Rotholandus''; it, Orlando or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the ...

Juno, a

Minimoog The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...

, and a

Sequential In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is called t ...

Pro One. Abbiss co-wrote "Playboys" with Virgo by manually programming synthesizers to generate various sounds that make up the song's extended

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...

sequences. Live instruments in the recording studio were themselves sometimes used for samples. Many of the piano sounds on the album (particularly those on "Slimcea Girl") were multisampled from a

Steinway Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan by German piano builder Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth led to the opening of a ...

Abbey Road Studios Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music c ...

, reportedly once used by

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

. Recording of "The Outsider" also ended up with Virgo multisampling the dulcimer brought to the studio.

Critical reception

'', in an overwhelmingly positive review, calls ''Formica Blues'' "unutterably gorgeous", praising it for evoking the era when " London was about to swing". The album was subsequently rated number 49 on the newspaper's top albums of the year list (Portishead's '' Portishead'' was rated number 18 on the same list). The ''Melody Maker'' album review opened with the phrase "A case study in post-modern ennui", which became a theme in some analyses of the album. Nicholson, in interpreting "Hello Cleveland!", calls the song a

pastiche A pastiche is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music, or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche pays homage to the work it imitates, rather than mocking it ...

of musical "quotations", comparable to Berio's ''Sinfonia'' in its referencing of past musical works. In addition, since the samples are not identified, Nicholson points out that, for the majority of listeners, they become

simulacra A simulacrum (plural: simulacra or simulacrums, from Latin ''simulacrum'', which means "likeness, semblance") is a representation or imitation of a person or thing. The word was first recorded in the English language in the late 16th century, us ...

— the

postmodern Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...

concept developed by

Jean Baudrillard Jean Baudrillard ( , , ; 27 July 1929 – 6 March 2007) was a French sociologist, philosopher and poet with interest in cultural studies. He is best known for his analyses of media, contemporary culture, and technological communication, as w ...

, meaning imitations that can't be ascribed to an original object — referring to, in this case, the fact that most listeners, including professional reviewers, do not recognize them as being anything beyond generic compositions reminiscent of classical music.Nicholson also makes the claim that "All of the samples used in Formica Blues are listed in the album’s liner notes with the exception of those used in 'Hello Cleveland!'". This does not acknowledge Jim Abbiss's implicit statement: "A lot of other effects we used which maybe sound like they were very reverby were just samples of sounds which already had a lot of reverb on them. I buy loads and loads of old crap records from charity shops – the worse the cover the better they usually are – and I use lots of samples I find on them, especially for reverby sounds." (Molineaux) From the perspective of a listener familiar with the source material, however, Nicholson suggests that Virgo seems to even use the placement of the samples to parallel the musical references found in the original works. Nevertheless, Nicholson concludes that the song "collapses", becoming an "aggregation of elements", which is applied to both groups of listeners: "amateur" listeners hear a collection of sounds with no particular significance, while "connoisseur" listeners are unable to construct a "narrative" out of the sounds as there are "too many elements". This effect, however, is tied back to Virgo's description of his musical influences, to suggest that it is exactly the "kaleidoscopic" effect of Phil Spector's

Wall of Sound The Wall of Sound (also called the Spector Sound) is a music production formula developed by American record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios, in the 1960s, with assistance from engineer Larry Levine and the conglomerate of session m ...

technique. Virgo, in his statements, in fact says that even though it "isn't music that tends to rear its head in a lot of popular music", the

Klangfarbenmelodie ''Klangfarbenmelodie'' (German for "sound-color melody") is a musical technique that involves splitting a musical line or melody between several instruments, rather than assigning it to just one instrument (or set of instruments), thereby adding c ...

(tone-colour-melody) approach to melody pioneered by the Second Viennese School was comparable to a style of popular music production "where there are so many things going on at once but the overall sound doesn't seem complicated" — which Virgo credits Phil Spector for originating; Nicholson makes the reasonable connection that this is referring to the Wall of Sound. The Spanish radio program ''Viaje a los Sueños Polares'' (on

Los 40 Principales Los 40 (The 40, stylized as LOS40 and formerly ''Los 40 Principales'', es, Los Cuarenta) is a Top 40 music radio network and radio station brand in many Spanish-speaking countries from PRISA Radio. The station has its origins as a music show ...

) awarded the album Best International LP in its 1997 staff poll. BBC broadcaster Mark Radcliffe listed ''Formica Blues'' among his top three albums of 1997, calling it "Atmospheric soundtracks for films that haven't been made yet" (prior to the 1998 release of ''Great Expectations'').

Comparisons

The band's use of period film score-inspired music and breakbeats led to comparisons to the influential group Portishead, the first of what

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

calls "mid-'90s male instrumentalist/female singer duos".

Track listing

Tracks 1, 3, 7, and 10 written by Martin Virgo; all others written by Virgo and Siobhan de Maré except 8 by Virgo, Jim Abbiss, and de Maré. # " Life in Mono" – 3:34 #* interlude – 0:18 # "Silicone" – 4:14 #* interlude – 0:35 # "Slimcea Girl" – 3:50 # "The Outsider" – 5:08 # "Disney Town" – 4:09 # "The Blind Man" – 5:22 #* interlude – 1:18 # "High Life" – 4:10 # "Playboys" – 6:40 # "Penguin Freud" – 6:18 # "Hello Cleveland!" – 6:33 The instrumental interludes shown are in especially long

pregap The pregap on a Red Book audio CD is the portion of the audio track that precedes "index 01" for a given track in the table of contents (TOC). The pregap ("index 00") is typically two seconds long and usually, but not always, contains silence. Po ...

s between the numbered tracks on the CD.

US bonus track

"Life in Mono" (Alice Band mix)

Japan bonus tracks

"Life in Mono" ("Hope" mix) # "Silicone" (Winchester Club Space dub mix) # "Slimcea Girl" (Fat Boy vocal)

UK bonus disc

# "Slimcea Girl" (

The Aloof The Aloof were a British electronic music group. They formed in London, England, in 1990. The group consisted of Ricky Barrow, Gary Burns, Jagz Kooner, Richard Thair, and Dean Thatcher. They were active during the 1990s, and released four studio ...

remix) # "Silicone" (

Les Rythmes Digitales Stuart David Price (born 9 September 1977) is an English electronic musician, DJ, songwriter, and record producer known for his work with artists including Madonna, Dua Lipa, The Killers, New Order, Kylie Minogue, DMA's, Example, Take Tha ...

remix) # "Slimcea Girl" (Fat Boy vocal) # "High Life" (Next Century Short dub) # "Silicone" (

Mr. Scruff Andrew Carthy (born 10 February 1972), better known by his stage name Mr. Scruff, is an English record producer and DJ. He lives in Stretford, Greater Manchester and studied fine art at the Psalter Lane campus of Sheffield Hallam University. ...

remix) # "Life in Mono" (

Propellerheads Propellerheads were an English electronic music duo, formed in 1995 in Bath and consisting of Will White and Alex Gifford. History Their first release was an EP named ''Dive!'', released in 1996 through the independent label Wall of Sound. ...

Sweat Band mix) # "Slimcea Girl" (Sol Brothers London dub remix) # "High Life" (

187 Lockdown 187 Lockdown was a British speed garage act, comprising Danny Harrison and Julian Jonah. The duo produced one album, with four singles released from it, and remixed many songs towards the end of the 1990s. The duo also recorded under a number ...

Low Life dub) # "Life in Mono" (Banana Republic Urban dub) # "High Life" (Natural Born Chillers vocal mix)

Samples

* "Life in Mono": ''

The Ipcress File ''The IPCRESS File'' is Len Deighton's first spy novel, published in 1962. The story involves Cold War brainwashing, includes scenes in Lebanon and on an atoll for a United States atomic weapon test, as well as information about Joe One, the ...

'', written and recorded by John Barry * "Silicone": " Walk On By", written by

and

Hal David Harold Lane David (May 25, 1921 – September 1, 2012) was an American lyricist. He grew up in New York City. He was best known for his collaborations with composer Burt Bacharach and his association with Dionne Warwick. Early life David ...

, recorded by

Isaac Hayes Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. (August 20, 1942 – August 10, 2008) was an American singer, actor, songwriter, and composer. He was one of the creative forces behind the Southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwri ...

;This is the same sample as used in the 1996 debut single by

Hooverphonic Hooverphonic is a Belgian band that formed in October 1995. Though originally categorized as a trip hop group, they quickly expanded their sound to the point where they could no longer be described as a singular genre, but rather encompass altern ...

(then called ''Hoover''), "2Wicky". "

Get Carter ''Get Carter'' is a 1971 British crime film written and directed by Mike Hodges in his directorial debut and starring Michael Caine, Ian Hendry, John Osborne, Britt Ekland and Bryan Mosley. Based on Ted Lewis's 1970 novel ''Jack's Return Hom ...

", written and recorded by

Roy Budd Roy Frederick Budd (14 March 1947 – 7 August 1993) was a British jazz pianist and composer known for his film scores, including ''Get Carter'' and ''The Wild Geese''. Early life Born in South Norwood, South London, Budd became interested in mu ...

* "Slimcea Girl": "Viva Revolucion", written by

Jon Carter Jon Carter (born 1970 in Essex, England) is an English electronic musician. He initially rose to prominence in the 1990s as a big beat DJ. However, as his career progressed both his productions and his DJ sets became known for including a vari ...

, recorded by

Artery An artery (plural arteries) () is a blood vessel in humans and most animals that takes blood away from the heart to one or more parts of the body (tissues, lungs, brain etc.). Most arteries carry oxygenated blood; the two exceptions are the pul ...

* "Penguin Freud": "Answered Prayers", written and recorded by

David Sylvian David Sylvian (born David Alan Batt, 23 February 1958) is an English musician, singer and songwriter who came to prominence in the late 1970s as frontman and principal songwriter of the band Japan. The band's androgynous look and increasingly ...

; an interpolation of "The Pan Piper", written by

Gil Evans Ian Ernest Gilmore Evans (né Green; May 13, 1912 – March 20, 1988) was a Canadian–American jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest orchestrators in jazz, playing an important role ...

Uncredited samples in "Hello Cleveland!" consist of: ''Sinfonia'' by

; ''Six Pieces'' (Op. 6) by

; ''

Five Pieces for Orchestra The ''Five Pieces for Orchestra'' (''Fünf Orchesterstücke''), Op. 16, were composed by Arnold Schoenberg in 1909, and first performed in London in 1912. The titles of the pieces, reluctantly added by the composer after the work's completion upo ...

'' (Op. 16) by

; and ''Lulu Suite'' by

. The sources sampled are found to be most likely recordings by

Riccardo Chailly Riccardo Chailly (, ; born 20 February 1953) is an Italian conductor. He is currently music director of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, since 2016, and music director of La Scala, since 2017. Prior to this, he held chief conducting positions ...

for ''Sinfonia'' and

Simon Rattle Sir Simon Denis Rattle (born 19 January 1955) is a British-German conductor. He rose to international prominence during the 1980s and 1990s, while music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1980–1998). Rattle was principal ...

for the three latter works — recordings all noted as being out-of-print.

Personnel

Mono

* Siobhan de Maré –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

(3, 4, 7) * Martin Virgo –

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

(10),

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

/ programming,

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

(3, 4, 7, 9, 10),

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

s (5, 6, 7),

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

(5, 7)

Other musicians involved

* Jim Abbiss – production (2, 5, 6, 8, 9), engineering (all but 7 and 10), keyboards/programming (6, 8), guitars (6), "wicked

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...

" (5) * Mat Coleman –

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

(7) * Luke Gifford – engineering (7, 9) * Colin Graham –

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

(7, 9) * Mikey Hartwell –

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

(7) * Lee Hubbard (Bushmaster) –

drum programming Programming is a form of music production and performance using electronic devices and computer software, such as sequencers and workstations or hardware synthesizers, sampler and sequencers, to generate sounds of musical instruments. These mus ...

(6) * The Lauren Hughes Experience –

triangle A triangle is a polygon with three Edge (geometry), edges and three Vertex (geometry), vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, an ...

(10) * Chris Margary –

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

(7) * Martin McColl – guitar (2, 9) * Paul Motion – engineering (7) * Bernard O'Neil –

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

(2) * Paulo de Oliveira – vocals (9) * Geoff Smith –

(4) * James Thorp – guitar (7)

Singles

Each single was released in 12" and CD formats, and included a number of remixes distributed across the various formats.

"Life in Mono"

Released: November 1996, April 1998 * Radio edit * Alice Band mix * Sweat Band mix * "Hope" mix * Bushmaster * Instrumental * Banana Republic Urban dub * Banana Republic Shift Control mix * Mr. Natural vocal mix *

LHOOQ ''L.H.O.O.Q.'' () is a work of art by Marcel Duchamp. First conceived in 1919, the work is one of what Duchamp referred to as readymades, or more specifically a rectified ready-made.

Ingenue mix

"Silicone"

Released: May 1997 * Les Rythmes Digitales remix * Mr. Scruff mix * Winchester Club Space dub mix * L.H.B. Implant

"Slimcea Girl"

Released: October 1997 * Aloof remix * Aloof dub reprise * The Fat Boy vocal * The Fat Boy dub * Sol Brothers London dub remix * Sol Brothers London bass mix * The Danmass remix * Fuzzed

"High Life"

Released: 29 June 1998 * 7" mix * 187 Lockdown Low Life dub * 187 Lockdown Low Life instrumental * Remember

Herbert Herbert may refer to: People Individuals * Herbert (musician), a pseudonym of Matthew Herbert Name * Herbert (given name) * Herbert (surname) Places Antarctica * Herbert Mountains, Coats Land * Herbert Sound, Graham Land Australia * Herbert ...

's mix * Lowfinger's Stereo Low Life mix * Natural Born Chillers vocal mix * Natural Born Chillers dub mix * Next Century Long dub mix * Next Century Short dub mix

Music videos

The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

for " Life in Mono was directed by Chuck Leal and Matt Donaldson, and first aired in February 1998. Filmed in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

(with the

Manhattan Bridge The Manhattan Bridge is a suspension bridge that crosses the East River in New York City, connecting Lower Manhattan at Canal Street with Downtown Brooklyn at the Flatbush Avenue Extension. The main span is long, with the suspension cables be ...

and the

Brooklyn Bridge The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/ suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River ...

prominently shown in some scenes), most of the video consists of de Maré performing the song alone in nondescript urban areas, with Virgo appearing in only a few shots, not doing anything in particular. Another version, interspersed with clips from ''Great Expectations'', was used to promote the song as part of the film's soundtrack. The video for "Silicone" was directed by Nick Abrahams and Michael Tomkins (working as "Nick and Mikey") for the production company Trash 2000. It was filmed at Heston Service Station Motel, located along Britain's

M4 motorway The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is a motorway in the United Kingdom running from west London to southwest Wales. The English section to the Severn Bridge was constructed between 1961 and 1971; the Welsh element was largely ...

. Filmed in black and white, it depicts hotel rooms and corridors populated by the band members as well as a "

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

man" dressed in a rabbit costume, and men in suits with a giant potato or a sculpted chimpanzee face in place of their heads. The video for "Slimcea Girl" was directed by Alexander Hemming. The video for "High Life" was directed by

Malcolm Venville Malcolm Frank Venville"Malcolm Frank Venville." ''People of Today''. Debrett's Ltd., 2009. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 19 July 2011. is a British photographer and film director. Life and career Born in Birmingham, Venville was a hearing chil ...

, who also photographed the single covers of "High Life" and the 1998 release of "Life in Mono". During a May 1998 online chat the band revealed plans to film a video with

David LaChapelle David LaChapelle (born March 11, 1963) is an American photographer, music video director and film director. He is best known for his work in fashion, photography, which often references art history and sometimes conveys social messages. His pho ...

, though there is no sign that this was ever realized.

Notes

References

* {{Authority control 1997 debut albums Albums produced by Jim Abbiss Mono (UK band) albums The Echo Label albums Mercury Records albums Pony Canyon albums