On November 21, Montrope releases their second full-length album, Immutable Future, a co-release between New Atlantis Records and Ambition Sound. Monotrope is comprised of members dispersed across the U.S., representing California, Texas, Ohio and Maryland respectively. Guitarist Ed Ricart is known for his work with Hyrrokkin, Unraze and Matta Gawa, as well as his collaborations with William Hooker, Merzbow, and more. Bassist Matthew Taylor is a member of Bellini, and worked for years as the art director for Touch & Go Records. Guitarist Dan Wilson played in Pittsburgh rock band Hurl, while drummer Joe Barker has played in Unraze, Tigon, Color TV, Ventid, and more.

The album was recorded with Jason LaFarge at Seizures Palace (Swans, Angels of Light, Khante) in Gowanus, New York and mixed with John McEntire at SOMA Studios (Yo La Tengo, Tortoise). Additional engineering took place at the hands of Ricart and Wilson at their own studios. The record was mastered by John Golden.

Monotrope makes instrumental rock music that is rich with contrast — a full-spectrum sound harnessing wide-range dynamics and compound meters, awash with rich saturation, lush consonance and angular dissonance. Immutable Future, their second full-length in as many years, carries the same sense of rapturous excitement and cathartic energy as their debut (Unifying Receiver; 2017, New Atlantis Records + Sleeping Giant Glossolalia). Whereas their debut revealed a band discovering the breadth of its own potential, Immutable Future is a confident step into the void of aural omnipotence, with the band crafting cathartic resolutions that clamor towards musical transcendence.

Rejecting stylistic confines, the Monotrope sound maximizes the impact of powerful, shifting dissonances and complex rhythms, by carefully weaving glimmers of radiant tonality into their work. The band works to realize their archetypal vision for expressive and innovative rock music with expansive, guitar-driven compositions, propelled by grinding bass guitar and limber, forceful drumming. The rhythm section is infinitely malleable, brashly navigating difficult passages with fluidity while extrapolating outwards from the musical ideas central to each passage. The guitars themselves speak some fundamentally distinct dialect, strangely familiar, yet expressly unique. The band calls to mind disparate voices like John Fahey, Gang of Four, Bastro and Erik Satie.

Listen to the record here:

Bandcamp