CD, Vendetta Music, 2008
www.darkforce.nl
Having eventually prised my promotional copy of this disc from my wife’s unwilling fingers, I experienced something of a moment of clarity: not since Converter’s legendary “Blast Furnace” have I felt quite as happy with my rivethead status. This is, without a doubt, some of the finest industrial/powernoise it has been my pleasure to listen to in a long time.
Heavily textured waves of pounding malevolence, emanating enough naked hostility to turn a cheerleader to ash at twenty paces, layered on top of constantly evolving, shifting percussive lines that show a great understanding of the dynamics of dance music: cleverly sequenced, with catchy breaks, “Industrial Thought Patterns” is possibly one of the most carefully considered dancefloor releases I have heard. No doubt thanks go to producer/composer Joost G’s prolific club experience in such disparate realms as acid techno, hardcore and industrial, all coming together in one package of eight unforgettable tracks. Mono-Amine is destined for industrial greatness, if this album, one of the darkest, most blatantly misanthropic I’ve heard, is anything to go by.
A tracklisting with contents like “Esoteric Freak”, “We Call it Democracy” and, my personal favourite, “Something Must Be Done To Change Where we Are Heading” give an insight into what makes Mono-Amine tick – and, to my great joy, it’s the same political angst and discontent that fuelled the industrial revolution of the 1990s. I am assailed by nostalgia, a pleasant sense of belonging to some exclusive worldwide club, comprised of thinkers, artists and serial murderers, a feeling that has been absent in a lot of the contemporary music I expose myself to. The only drawback to this provocative content is that Joost G has a lot to say, and he doesn’t mind taking his time to say it: tracks are longer than what’s expected on your average industrial release, leaning towards the average psytrance-length of six to eight minute… Although “Layered Mindfuck” tips the scales at just over twelve minutes! To his credit, Mono-Amine keeps things interesting with regular rhythmic changes and continually building walls of sound, so the longer tracks only become an issue if you had something else you really wanted to slip into your set…
[9.5/10]
— David vander Merwe