Monoid is the work of German composer Martin Steinebach, who has been kicking around the experimental scene for many years under several names, including Conscientia Peccati, Compest, and StillStand . I have been familiar with his work for many years (I did a split with him over 20 years ago and contributed a remix for his amazing Heimat set), so I was interested to hear how his music has evolved. I had previously reviewed the Compest tape on Oxidation and enjoyed it, so I had high hopes for this disc.

Monoid is Steinbach’s industrial project, and this disc delivers the rhythmic noise in spades. For example, “Polarity” even has a beat that you can dance to, and I could see this being played in a dance club by an enterprising DJ. However, this is a disc with a lot of variety. For example, “Satisfy” features on account of a consensual sexual activity that suddenly takes a dark turn. Let’s just say that this is something that you might expect on a Brighter Death Now track (only not so heavy handed), with a slow beat and heavy sawtooth synth. “Shift” begins with a man talking about a pole shift and the global devastation that would come from volcanoes, wind, and other issues. The music neglects the beat, focusing more on a heavy bass-driven soundscape, where we can see more of the dark ambient side of Steinebach's work coming through. In fact, the disc in general has a dark feel that kind of reminds me of Recoil’s work.

If you're wondering where the noisiness is, “HowItShouldBe” has you covered. It begins with squalling feedback noise that goes on for a minute or two before kicking into a heavily distorted vocals that are pretty much unintelligible and buried in the mix of noise. It's really interesting, and a good time. “Stasis” closes out the disc with more rhythmic soundscapes and samples with some heavily distorted vocals that are unintelligible.

Overall, this is much heavier and much darker than his other projects. However, the music is well put together and there is a lot happening on this disc. Steinebach manages to avoid falling into the trap of rhythmic noise where everything starts to sound the same, but still manages a sense of continuity throughout. Well worth checking out. This disc weighs in at around 49 minutes.