Talk about eclectic, after Light In The Attic released Jamaica To Toronto - Soul Funk & Reggae 1967-1974 and then Stephen John Kalinich’s A World Of Peace Must Come, you don’t really know what they’ll find in the attic next. I certainly didn’t expect proto punk, krautrock, psychedelic, garage rock or that it’d be this good or relevant to a load of recent albums that’s come out like Beyond The Wizards Sleeve, Joyce’s Visions Of Dawn or Carlos Nino’s With A Little Help From (a very diverse trio in themselves),

I don’t know what these guys were on but they had a special type of enlightenment even for the mid sixties. Even if these guys didn’t have the monk haircuts, can you image Chas Chandler saying to the other Animals, “I know, what we need is a banjo player”? Of course not, but The Monks thought it was a good idea as the comprise Gary Burger (guitar and vocals), Larry ‘Fingers’ Clark (organ), Eddie Shaw (bass), Roger Johnston (drums) and Dave Day on banjo.

In fact, the banjo isn’t as much of a problem as you might think with Clark’s organ and Jonston’s drums dominating. Originally produced and recorded by the Monks in September 1965 at Tonstudio Bauer in Ludwigsburg, Germany (where else?), it sounds as good today as it must have then.

Evolving out of surf band called The Five Torquays (most obviously on ‘Blast Off’); The Monks went ‘Black’ with this album. ‘Shut Up’ and ‘I Hate You’ are as if Graham Bond got together with The Ramones. It’s that “original” with the spirit of Hendrix and Captain Beefheart lurking around. The intro to ‘Monk Time’ is class and worth getting the album for in itself, “Alright, my name is Gary, lets go…it’s beat time, it’s hot time, it’s Monk time..you know we don’t like the army, what army? How cares what what army. why do they kill all those kids in over there in Vietnam, not the Veit Kong. My brother died in Vietnam. James Bond, who is he? Stop it, I don’t like it, that’s too loud for my ears”. And they are a loud band. That banjo and organ fuse Trad-psychedlic jazz-rock on ‘Higgle-Dy-Piggle-Dy’ with Garry almost yodelling as they go “Way down to Heaven”. ‘Complication’ and ‘Oh, How To Do Now’ nod at the 13th Floor Elevators but this is a strange trip that even Jim Morrison would struggle with.

There’s a distinct change of groove with the bonus tracks that grates as boys try and be more [sub] ‘pop’, clearly a mistake as anyone who has heard ‘Cuckoo’ and ‘Love Can Tame The Wild’ will testify; but stick with it as ‘He Went Down To The Sea’ is as trippy as the title, ‘Pretty Suzanne’ is downtempo doo-wop al a ‘96 Tears’ with fuzz box (Oh, yeah!) and ‘Monks Chant’ is just their raw beat.

These guys were way out there alright back in the day but with the passing of the years any time is Monk time. They reformed in 1999 and their web site warns us ‘news’ is coming soon but these sound of the sixties shouldn’t be so cult so thanks go to Light In The Attic for this education in the dark side; ideal timing if you’ve got Mojo’s April issue with the I Can See For Miles cover disc.

Reviewed: The Monks - Black Monk Time (Light In The Attic) Cat. No: LITA 042 Released: 2009
Tracklisting:
1 Monk Time (2:45)
2 Shut Up (3:14)
3 Boys Are Boys And Girls Are Choice (1:25)
4 Higgle-Dy-Piggle-Dy (2:29)
5 I Hate You (3:34)
6 Oh, How To Do Now (3:16)
7 Complication (2:23)
8 We Do Wie Du (2:11)
9 Drunken Maria (1:46)
10 Love Came Tumbin’ Down (2:30)
11 Blast Off! (2:14)
12 That’s My Girl (2:26)
Bonus Tracks
13 I Can’t Get Over You (2:44)
14 Cuckoo (2:44)
15 Love Can Tame The Wild (2:38)
16 He Went Down To The Sea (3:01)
17 Pretty Suzanne (3:55)
18 Monk Chant (Live) (2:00)

Links:
www.the-monks.com
www.myspace.com/lightintheattic
www.lightintheattic.net
Mojo - April 2009 £4.30 www.mojo4music.com