Posted on: September 1, 2015 Posted by: Yousuf Ahmed Comments: 0

Russian producer — and graduated psychologist —Vlad Kudryavtsev aka Monokle realizes that his home country might not be the epicenter of electronic music but lucky for him, German label Ki Records likes to spread out it’s ears worldwide searching for unique music and producers. That’s how it happened back in 2012, when he released his critically acclaimed Ki Records debut Saints. Marked by distinct influence from his upbringing on early IDM and glitch releases on Warp Records, he was established his voice by weaving in element of ambient and drone for a truly singular debut.


Monokle ups the ante even further with his new album Rings, out this Friday September 4th. Vlad got rid of all static listening and producing structures and opted to go to go his own, more freeform way, when creating music for the new album. This time around, his influences can be heard throughout but instead exist more as sound fragments with a truly kaleidoscopic point of view. These sound fragments united, get torn apart, and in the end melt together again. The album can be heard this week over at XLR8R, where it is streaming in full.

Vlad has showcased his skills as a dj recently as well via two stellar mixes; one for THUMP and another for Impose Magazine. The former is a showcase of Russian electronic music, offering up a wide-ranging sampling of not-yet-discovered talent. His Friday Night Mix for Impose showcases and stellar juxtaposition of heady IDM and body moving beats for the dancefloor.

For the last two years, Monokle was busy creating these eleven new tracks and in the process, he got support from other personalities in the flourishing Russian electronic music scene for the album as well. His close friend and partner in crime Milinal, who also made a remix for the last album, lends his vocal talents to both “Calypt” and “Radiant Places,” the album closer. Also another Ki Records family member, the Moscow based vocalist Gala Ga (lead singer of the band Aanbreken), is featured on the song “Blow”. The album opens with “Rouse“, combining a timpany-esque melody and ghostly vocals with a spheric bed of sounds. In “Backwash“, Monokle focuses more on the dance-floor oriented side of his productions and delivers a perfect late night track with sites focused squarely on the dance floor. “Holytin” feels like a track that was made for Ki, letting melancholic sounds help us life’s more mundane elements and takes us into a better world.

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