''Silver Monk Time'' is a tribute album inspired by the German-American beat band the Monks. It also serves as the

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

to '' Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback'', a 2006 documentary film about the band. The record was produced and compiled by the filmmakers, Dietmar Post and Lucia Palacios, and released in October 2006 on the Play Loud! Productions label. The official record release was part of a major event at

Volksbühne The Volksbühne ("People's Theatre") is a theater in Berlin. Located in Berlin's city center Mitte on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz (Rosa Luxemburg Square) in what was the GDR's capital. It has been called Berlin's most iconic theatre. About The V ...

theater in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, Germany. In conjunction with the film's premiere, the Monks performed their first live show in Germany for almost 40 years. They were joined on stage by some of the musicians featured on the album, including The Raincoats,

Mark E. Smith Mark Edward Smith (5 March 1957 – 24 January 2018) was an English singer-songwriter. He was the lead vocalist, lyricist and only constant member of the post-punk group the Fall. Smith formed the band after attending the June 1976 Sex Pistol ...

of The Fall, Peter Hein of Fehlfarben, and Schorsch Kamerun of Goldene Zitronen.

Concept

The production of ''Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback'' was hampered by financial problems. The creation of ''Silver Monk Time'' was in part an attempt to raise money for the film. The title came about due to a rumor that after the release of '' Black Monk Time'' in May 1966, the Monks had begun work on a second LP, called ''Silver Monk Time'', which would have consisted entirely of one long "primitive beat", involving tambourines, an organ, and guitar feedback. It was decided that the new ''Silver Monk Time'' would not be a standard tribute album; the participating artists were explicitly asked to experiment with the songs, rather than producing straight cover versions. The German electronic avant-garde band

Mouse on Mars Mouse on Mars is a German electronic music duo formed in 1993 by Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma. Their music is a blend of electronic genres including IDM, dub, krautrock, breakbeat and ambient, featuring heavy use of organic analog synth and ...

wrote, in the booklet accompanying the record: "Mouse on Mars have tried to prove that after the deconstruction of the Monks their undeniable influence on 21st-century pop music has been proven. Rhythm, sound and melody grow together to a stream of lava on which the energy laden music surfs down into the valley of Dionysus by tearing down mirror balls like apples from trees." The album artwork was created by Lucia Palacios, and is based on the motif of the '' Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback'' film poster by Daniel Richter.

Reception

The ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Ma ...

'' wrote: "The Uberbeat (and a war or two) goes on. (...) ''Silver Monk Time'' buys us all some more hop time, finally!“ ''

The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American Crime fiction, crime Drama (film and television), drama television series created and primarily written by the American author and former police reporter David Simon for the cable network HBO. The series premiered o ...

'' mentioned ''Silver Monk Time'' among the best compilation records of 2007: "Unlike many tribute projects that fall flat due to those involved being either overawed or ignorant of the original material, ''Silver Monk Time'' succeeds because the participants have taken the group's primitive rock surge as a template to experiment with. As a result the sound of The Monks is treated to a 21st century workout with synthesizers and beat tracks threaded through the original quartet's already way out psychotic minimalism“.

Track listing

;CD 1 #Minimal Monk (Mense Reents) #Monk Time (

Alec Empire Alec Empire (born Alexander Wilke-Steinhof on 2 May 1972)https://www.alec-empire.com/ae Alec Empire official website biography is a German experimental electronic musician who is best known as a founding member of the band Atari Teenage Riot, a ...

/ Gary Burger) #Monks No Time (

) #Monk Chant ( The Raincoats) #Were Ever / Oh, How to Do Now (27 / 11) #Monk Hop (

Jason Forrest Jason Forrest is an American electronic music producer known for noisy Experimental music, experimental electronica and breakcore incorporating many ideas of Mashup (music), mash-up and rock and roll. Largely produced and performed on a single c ...

) #Blast Off (Cycle) #We Do Wie Do ( Fehlfarben) #Drunken Maria ( The Gossip) #Complication ( Jon Spencer / Solex) #Silver Monk Time ( Silver Apples / Alan Vega) #Shut Up (Floating di Morel) #Tumbling Monks ( Gudrun Gut) #Kuchhuche (Nista Nije Nista) ;CD 2 #The Transatlantic Feedback ( F.S.K.) #Higgle-Dy Piggle-Dy ( The Fall / Gary Burger) #Komplikation ( Die Goldenen Zitronen / Chicks on Speed) #I Can't Get Over You ( Barbara Manning / The Go-Luckys) #Boys Are Girls and Girls Are Boys (

Psychic TV Psychic TV (aka PTV or Psychick TV or several other aliases) were an English experimental music, experimental video art and music collective, formed by performance artist Genesis P-Orridge and Scottish musician Alex Fergusson (musician), Alex ...

) #Sei Still (Doc Schoko) #Oh, How To Do Now (S.Y.P.H.) #I Hate You ( Alexander Hacke) #Shut Up ( The (International) Noise Conspiracy) #Cuckoo ( The 5.6.7.8's) #That's My Girl (The Havletones / Dave Day) #I Hate You ( Singapore Sling) #Blaster ( Michaela Melian) #It Is Charles Time ( Charles Paul Wilp / The Monks) #Beware - The Transatlantic Feedback (

Faust Faust ( , ) is the protagonist of a classic German folklore, German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust (). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a deal with the Devil at a ...

/ Gary Burger)

Singles

There have also been two 7" single releases taken from ''Silver Monk Time'': # " Monk Time" (Alec Empire / Gary Burger) b/w "Higgle-dy Piggle-dy" (The Fall) # "Drunken Maria" (Gossip) b/w "Monk Chant" (The Raincoats)

References

{{Authority control 2000s tribute albums 2006 compilation albums The Monks 2006 soundtrack albums Film soundtracks