The times cry out in desperation for something new! Obviously. Yet, could be that the new new is old. Old and cheap, shopworn and simple, useful but uncared-for, lovingly restored...respected.

Metamono is three guys in London, longtime mates inspired to form a band of sorts ÐÐ an affordable band, a non-wasteful band, a real, true hands-on electronic band ÐÐ while sitting round down the pub. Jono Podmore is a composer/producer/programmer/engineer who as Kumo is also a musical partner with Irmin Schmidt of Can, and has been the chief mixmaster for all the recent Can catalog remasterings for CD and vinyl on Spoon Records. Paul Conboy (a.k.a. APE, CorkerConboy, Soul Circuit) is an electronic musician with numerous film and TV credits, and has written for and performed with Bomb The Bass. Mark Hill is primarily a visual artist who Òhas contemplated his Korg MS-20 for 25 years and has finally turned the on switch.Ó

The trio have recently released a six-song cassette called Band Theory, which you can inquire about at http://www.metamono.co.uk. Yes, thatÕs right, itÕs a cassette-only release, as was their limited-edition initial release, the four-song C₁₅H₁₄O₆ .

The good-humored power and charming oddness of Metamono derives in the main from the power of restriction, to use limited means and far more direct actions to make a sound that lives and breathes, and does it now. Their sound ÐÐ generated with a borrowed, broken, substandard pile of vintage analog synths, ring modulators, pedal-effects units, dial radios, a siren and theremin ÐÐ is very, very musical, and there are many reasons for that, as you shall see when you sit around Skype with us and discuss the matter with Metamono:

BLUEFAT: ThereÕs archness in the manifesto, like Von Trier would do, but the issue is big: What is the meaning of analog? The metaphors abound.

JONO PODMORE: Well, in our case we were talking about analog purely technically ÐÐ because, for example, Paul has been building a big chunk of the synths that we use; all of PaulÕs gear heÕs built himself ÐÐ and avoiding using computers to compose the music. I mean, you think about making music completely differently. ItÕs interesting, one of the analogies ÐÐ analog-ies ÐÐ is, a friend of mine is a graphic designer, and we refer to him and his job and his fellow artists as pixel jockeys these days [laughs]. ItÕs like, someone is an artist, and they turn into a pixel jockey ÐÐ and you give Ôem a job, you get a paint brush or a piece of wood, they fuckinÕ love it. ThatÕs kind of what we were trying to liberate when we came up with the manifesto.

So thereÕs no cheating, then?

JONO: Paul, is there any cheating?

PAUL CONBOY: ItÕs not possible to cheat.

Why no microphones? Why no mechanical devices?

PAUL: We didnÕt want to get involved in anything like traditional instruments or vocalists, because we work with those kind of people all the time, and itÕs very difficult to record that sort of stuff, technically, and get it to sound good. Also it just helps closing a lot of doors to us ÐÐ

MARK HILL: We just cut down all the options.

(continued)

MANIFESTO

All sound is now available to all musicians everywhere.
Music has become a flaccid shadow of the social power it once was.

METAMONO
will restrict and limit the sound sources and techniques available to us in order

TO LIBERATE the imagination.
TO ECHO the struggle society endures.

Our restraints will be our liberties.
Our limitations will be our aesthetic.
We will kick against the pricks.

METAMONO WILL NEVER
- use a microphone
- use digital sound generation or sampling
- use mechanical sound generation
- use digital sound processing
- make overdubs
- be afraid of mono
- remix

METAMONO WILL ONLY
- use analogue electronic sound generation
- use analogue electronic sound processing
- use digital recording and basic editing when no alternative is available
- compose and mix simultaneously
- build their own or play used instruments