--Ada Wofford
----2 April 2021
Mondo Mono is the project of Cleveland, Ohio native (now Philly resident), Justin Johnson. He has been making music under this moniker for years, but Glop is his first proper release, which includes a limited run of 25 CDs and 25 cassettes with handmade artwork, cases, and figurines. It's pretty cool stuff and it's fun to see a project where the artist is involved in literally every step of the production, presentation, and release. It's pure DIY and it's exactly the reason we at My Little Underground get out of bed in the morning.
The EP is quite short, comprised of only 6 tracks, the longest of which clocks in at 2:16. It's actually a perfect fit for this EP though. The tracks themselves are these terrific little lo-fi experiments, each similar to the others, but each branching out in some unique direction. There is a lot of early Beck influence here, but it's done incredibly well. Mondo Mono isn't trying to rip anyone off, Mondo Mono is just building off of the sounds that most of us have forgotten and doing an incredible job of it. The plinky acoustic guitars, the tinny electronic drums, the monotone pseudo-rap, all combining into something a little creepy but somehow also a little fun—It's a rare niche to attempt to fill but Mondo Mono succeed at every turn.
When I asked Johnson about the recording process, he had this to say:
The gear used includes two different 80s Casio keyboards, a ten dollar 4-string acoustic guitar, a cheap no-name electric guitar and bass, Yamaha drum machine, a Walkman, 3 microphones, desktop computer from 1999, my voice(s), and various background noises/room noise. I attempted to record an EP every month for a year. It turned out to be 13 or so in about a year and a half. The recording process is an incredibly long story that may or may not be interesting, but it involves various situations including, mental breakdowns, family deaths, moving across state, becoming a dad, quitting music, quitting smoking, quitting drinking, trying various medications, starting music again, and several other deeply personal interactions and observations that you may/may not find discussed in the lyrics deeply masked in metaphors.
Get Your Glop On!
The focus on cheap, no-name gear is an essential part of this album's sound. There's a certain authenticity that comes through with those types of instruments that you ironically cannot achieve or replicate with expensive top of the line gear. If you're a fan of lo-fi music, particularly 90s lo-fi, I highly suggest you check out Glop. Purchase handmade editions of the album and stream via BandCamp.
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