Chris Preston
Mono Is King!
© 1997 Chris Preston (615095111120)
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Rawly recorded (in mono.) guitar pop saturated by 70s AOR and American musical theatre; an ambitious debut by a well-meaning analog recordist who had no idea what playing every instrument yourself can do to your mind.
tracks
- 1 Soul Connection
- 2 Picture
- 3 Old and Grey
- 4 Children Make Their Paces
- 5 Daylight Savings
- 6 Easy, Baby
- 7 A Side Two Get-together
- 8 Mono Is King
- 9 Quadraphonic Circus Parade
- 10 New Jersey Surf Story
- 11 Catgut
- 12 Dandelion Rays
- 13 Torture Sequence #1&2
- 14 Man-Sized
- 15 The Guitar
- 16 Love Is Love
- 17 The Hot Butter Radio Hour
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They say that you have your whole life to write your first album. Though I wrote the songs mostly in 1996, I definitely tried to cram a lifetime of experience into the songs and the grooves. I was out to prove a lot with "Mono Is King!" about my talent, technology, music, you name it. Oh such purpose. The whole thing is a nod to AM radio in the 70s, which I loved so well. The album is in mono (meaning not in stereo) just like the music was that came out of my transistor when I was a kid. I recorded the record on 8 track and mastered it on quarter-inch reel-to-reel tape. I rejected all special effects and digital technologies, leaving only distance (how loud something was in the mix) to make my statement. Some of the arrangements are pretty thick for such a comparatively primitive approach.
In the theme of distance, most of the songs on "Mono Is King!" were about the self-imposed isolation of ambition, and the longing for connection that always lay beneath the exterior. Many of the characters are loners that seek a single true companion.
Even though Mono Is King! is on CD, it has two "sides," like an LP. Each side was conceived as a complete thought and each one leads to the other. In fact, at the end of side two, I introduce the first song on side one. This was my first attempt at playing every instrument and singing every part myself on a recording. I only enlisted a drummer’s help, because I didn’t yet own a kit. Being alone in a studio for that long, rolling tape myself and performing each track one at a time, I started to go a little stir crazy, hearing weird things in the playback and getting punchy in the late night sessions. By side two, I had decided to document that experience, which accounts for all of the weirdness between the actual songs. I gave those little gems their own IDs on the disc, in case you don’t want to follow me down.
Enjoy "Mono Is King!" I hope it demonstrates how much can be done with very little.