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Derek Monypeny is a Joshua Tree, California-based guitarist/multi-instrumentalist who has played in the bands ALTO!, Oaxacan, and Sir Richard Bishop?s Freak Of Araby Ensemble. Don?t Bring Me Down, Bruce, his album of solo oud recordings released in 2011, received international acclaim. He has performed and toured with artists such as Bill Orcutt, Jozef van Wissem, Eva Agulia, Arrington de Dionyso, and many others.
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LP
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KHZ 1010LP
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From the electrical entrance to the fragile departure, Derek Monypeny's Cibola is a continued exploration/distillation of the approach and methodology that Monypeny first introduced on The Hand As Dealt. The 15-string Indian electric banjo known as the shahi baaja again features prominently, and many of the tracks could be called "drone-based." The sound melds something new without the absence of the reference material, but Monypeny also wanted to expand further. Cibola marks the first time he has ever had drums on any of his solo records; his dear friend, the brilliant San Francisco-based percussionist and sound artist Kevin Corcoran, sent him a complete drum track and he played shahi baaja and guitar over it. The result is "Nala Gem," where Monypeny and Corcoran explore quasi-Southeast Asian bell tones, dynamics, and heavy wash. And Monypeny ends the record with "A Tin Tear Drop," where he introduces an electric autoharp, which he plays using mallets to create a multiphonic, glowing Fabrege sound-egg. Monypeny has recorded a companion piece to this record that 2182 has pressed in limited quantities available directly through mail order. Remote Duets is a seven-inch consisting of two open-source percussion tracks performed and recorded by Ted Byrnes in Los Angeles, CA. Derek Monypeny is a Joshua Tree, CA-based guitarist/multiinstrumentalist who has played in the bands ALTO!, Oaxacan, and Sir Richard Bishop's Freak Of Araby Ensemble. Don't Bring Me Down, Bruce, his album of solo oud recordings released in 2011, received international acclaim. He has performed and toured with artists such as Bill Orcutt, Jozef van Wissem, Eva Agulia, Arrington de Dionyso, and many others.
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2LP
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KHZ 1006LP
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How many records are truly prescient? How many are after living through 2020? Even though Derek Monypeny's The Hand As Dealt was recorded before arriving at such a chaotic point, the album is of this time. The tracks are a song cycle of creative tension that crescendos with "The Tamarisk," but never allows for the chaos to overtake the compositions. Conceived deep in the Mojave Desert, these masterfully executed solo guitar and shahi baaja recordings cover a wide sonic and emotional gamut, passing through pastoral psychedelia, severe shred-freak outs, hazy Egyptian string sections, and Riley-esque pulsing hypnosis. It is a sprawling, immersive homage to the spiritual music of the elders -- Don Cherry, Alice Coltrane, Umm Kulthum (and her orchestra), and Terry Riley. The fifth release from Twenty One Eighty Two Recording Company, The Hand As Dealt is the first solo record for Monypeny in seven years. His involvement with 2182 extends another concentric circle out from the label's Mount Meru series, which was developed by Alan Bishop, David Oliphant, Joel Robinson and Monypeny's bandmate Richard Bishop.
Derek Monypeny is a Joshua Tree, California-based guitarist/multi-instrumentalist who has played in the bands ALTO!, Oaxacan, and Sir Richard Bishop's Freak Of Araby Ensemble. Don't Bring Me Down, Bruce, his album of solo oud recordings released in 2011, received international acclaim. He has performed and toured with artists such as Bill Orcutt, Jozef van Wissem, Eva Agulia, Arrington de Dionyso, and many others.
"Derek, using tastefully deployed effects and small and patient gestures, digs deep into those thin places where all kinds of inner space visions can flourish." --Larry Dolman, Blastitude
"Monypeny... makes a stake for a conception of the parameters of variously translated formal/cultural/biological folk modes as the keys to the goddamn kingdom that is every bit as persuasive as Sun City Girls at their most alien." --David Keenan, Volcanic Tongue
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2LP +7"
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KHZ 1006LTD-LP
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Limited version with bonus 7"
For those who are quick on the uptake, Monypeny has recorded a companion piece to this record that 2182 has pressed in limited quantities. Derek Monypeny Plays Sun City Girls Songs On The Shahi Baaja is a seven-inch dedicated to the memory of Charles Gocher, Jr. "The circles beget other circles which extend out in an attempt to find any movement forward. It is a hopeful optimism for the future."
How many records are truly prescient? How many are after living through 2020? Even though Derek Monypeny's The Hand As Dealt was recorded before arriving at such a chaotic point, the album is of this time. The tracks are a song cycle of creative tension that crescendos with "The Tamarisk," but never allows for the chaos to overtake the compositions. Conceived deep in the Mojave Desert, these masterfully executed solo guitar and shahi baaja recordings cover a wide sonic and emotional gamut, passing through pastoral psychedelia, severe shred-freak outs, hazy Egyptian string sections, and Riley-esque pulsing hypnosis. It is a sprawling, immersive homage to the spiritual music of the elders -- Don Cherry, Alice Coltrane, Umm Kulthum (and her orchestra), and Terry Riley. The fifth release from Twenty One Eighty Two Recording Company, The Hand As Dealt is the first solo record for Monypeny in seven years. His involvement with 2182 extends another concentric circle out from the label's Mount Meru series, which was developed by Alan Bishop, David Oliphant, Joel Robinson and Monypeny's bandmate Richard Bishop.
Derek Monypeny is a Joshua Tree, California-based guitarist/multi-instrumentalist who has played in the bands ALTO!, Oaxacan, and Sir Richard Bishop's Freak Of Araby Ensemble. Don't Bring Me Down, Bruce, his album of solo oud recordings released in 2011, received international acclaim. He has performed and toured with artists such as Bill Orcutt, Jozef van Wissem, Eva Agulia, Arrington de Dionyso, and many others.
"Derek, using tastefully deployed effects and small and patient gestures, digs deep into those thin places where all kinds of inner space visions can flourish." --Larry Dolman, Blastitude
"Monypeny... makes a stake for a conception of the parameters of variously translated formal/cultural/biological folk modes as the keys to the goddamn kingdom that is every bit as persuasive as Sun City Girls at their most alien." --David Keenan, Volcanic Tongue
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