Artist
Monolake
Interstate
Field Records
/
2026
2x12”
36.99
Field 39
Pre-Order: Available on / around Jun 19th 2026
Incl. VAT plus shipping / Orders from outside the EU are exempt from VAT
Tracklist
1Abundance
2Gecko
3Tangent I
4Tagent II
5Perpetuum
6Amazon
7Ginza
8Terminal

First-ever vinyl pressing of Monolake's seminal 1999 album »Interstate«, an evolution from their earlier dub-techno-tinted works. In a kaleidoscopic lattice of micro-rhythms and exquisitely dynamic textural work, Robert Henke and Gerhard Behles fully collaborated for the final time on this record — and created an electronica landmark in the process.

The duo yielded greater complexity in the behaviour of their sound palette to achieve an organismic quality that remains an enduring influence on so many strands of experimental electronic music today. Interstate is a vivid record that builds up eight different ecosystems of sound and subtly threads elegant grooves through their root structures.

There's a house-like undulation to the low-end driving »Tangent-I« and »Tangent-II«, but the infinitesimally detailed layers of sound on top swoon from techno synth shimmers to trickling waters, snaking delay trails and pin prick percussion. You can hear the unmistakable, snappy rhythmic thrust of drum & bass driving »Ginza«, but here it's used as an engine for the crispest array of designer percussion and dub-soaked synth chirrups. Across every track, Henke and Behles demonstrate a potent combination, both groovily instinctive and eternally fascinating to try and pick apart.

After »Interstate«, Behles departed to focus entirely on the development of Ableton Live and Henke steered Monolake towards a leaner — but no less pioneering — sound. Every Monolake record has its own unique context and sound, and the circumstances of »Interstate« could never be repeated. Capturing the leaps in progress that were being made in digital music production at the end of the millennium, it's an information-rich document of a moment in time that still sounds wildly futuristic 27 years later.