Black Monk Time (1966)

Black Monk Time is the only studio album by the German-based American garage rock band the Monks, released in March 1966 through Polydor Records. It was later recognized by music critics as a forerunner to punk rock.

Black Monk Time was ranked number 56 on Spin magazine's list of the "Top 100 Alternative Albums of the 1960s" and number 127 on Pitchfork's list of the best albums of the 1960s, and has been featured on The Word's "Hidden Treasure: Great Underrated Albums of Our Time", as well as the Sunday Herald's "The 103 Best Albums Ever, Honest" and the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Background

Formed by five American GIs stationed in Gelnhausen, West Germany, in 1964, the Monks, originally known as the Torquays, were signed by a German management team composed of Karl Remy, Walther Niemann, and Günther and Kiki Aulich, who originally spotted the band at a show in Stuttgart. Bassist Eddie Shaw stated: "We were getting our haircuts when Roger [Johnston] decided to have a tonsure. That's when we all decided to do it. Our manager Karl said, 'That's it!'" The other members were initially wary of this look, but they all eventually adopted tonsures, black religious habits, and cinctures and renamed themselves "the Monks", with local newspapers labeling them "the anti-beatles". The group also altered their sound significantly, incorporating feedback, an electric banjo guitar, drums with no cymbals, fuzz bass, anti-war lyrics, and a general emphasis on rhythm.

Black Monk Time was recorded in November 1965 in Cologne, with Jimmy Bowien producing, and released by Polydor Records in March 1966. "Complication" b/w "Oh, How to Do Now" was released as a single to promote the album, but neither release garnered commercial success.

Music

According to Stephen M. Deusner of Paste, "The Monks were all rhythm section, with every instrument clicking into a tense lockstep punctuated by Gary Burger’s wild-man yelps and Dave Day's electrified banjo—an instrument as distinct as the Thirteenth Floor Elevators’ electric jug. In their lusty frivolity, The Monks find a measure of gravity and outrage." Their style was self-described as "Über-beat". In 2011, bassist Eddie Shaw described their musical process in an interview:

To develop something new we developed a process known as deconstructing and reconstructing, laying down bass and drum patterns to be added to, by the other instruments. We made best use of each individual’s tendencies and abilities. In fact we made it very minimalist – single loud/distorted bass notes on the beat – drums with no cymbals except for accents – banjo rock and roll chords because it was a hard trashy sound – guitar, using the feedback – and organ playing beats and wild solos. All instruments were played as rhythm instruments.

Critic Alexis Petridis of The Guardian cited Roger Johnston's drumming on the album as a precursor to the later German krautrock movement, noting an early form of the motorik beat in his "tightly wound playing".

Critical reception

Black Monk Time was initially ignored upon release but has since become widely recognized as a landmark proto-punk album. In a retrospective review for About.com, Anthony Carew called it "possibly the first punk record" and "one of the 'missing links' of alternative music history", also citing it as an influence on the German krautrock movement. Andrew Perry wrote in The Daily Telegraph in 2009: "it's hard to imagine how this primitive and often nightmarish music could have been allowed to be made at that particular time and place. [...] It may not be to every taste but, lurching according to its own sublimely clueless logic, it has a purity and heedlessness which can never be repeated." According to Len Comaratta of Uncut, "there's really nothing that can dull the impact of hearing the Monks' music for the first time." Paste magazine described the album as "[eleven] songs of brash grooves and unearthly garage rock that show no signs of hobby or pastime." In his book, The Rough Guide to Rock, writer Peter Buckley had said Black Monk Time has not "aged one iota. If anything, it has gotten stranger".

Music historian Kelley Stoltz described the Monks as a group that "overwhelms the listener with a sound they termed 'over-beat' - at their worst it is totally oddball freakrock that sounds like a pleasurable argument". Stoltz concluded that the band had "outsexed the [Sex] Pistols" ten years before punk emerged.