Setting the vibe with percussive details fused with a pulsating rhythmic guitar, we are immersed in Monokino‘s latest release, Baby, which opens with the descriptive and introspective lyrics, “Baby, where you wanna go tonight? I’m driving in a danger zone, you said you wanna be alone…”

Baby comes with an accompanying retro-futurist visual, created by Monokino himself, which is uniquely made entirely of ASCII characters. We love the universe that the Netherlands-based artist has created with synth-wave visuals and a 90s garage psych meets 80s art-rock sound.

As Baby expands as a song, we are hypnotized by Monokino‘s vocal delivery, nuance and lyricism, which includes the cerebral stand out line “I’ve been driving your way, but I could drive away…”

There are moments where Monokino‘s style reminds us of Placebo (even the single art is similar to Meds). Speaking on the sonic inspiration for the track, Monokino says, “The music for ‘Baby’ came about after someone said that, musically, I might want too much in my songs and I should stick with a simple chord progression. Of course, I didn’t agree and, in protest, I started making a song with only one bass note. That soon got boring and a different bass and guitar riff was created when I stepped on my distortion pedal. I never actually sang in this kind of talking voice on that pitch — but I imagined myself driving in a racing car, singing ‘Baby’ in this Billy Idol kind of way.”

We love how that comes to life in the narrative of the song which incorporates elements of pop, indie, rock and electro. Monokino has been a frequent participant in China’s ever growing music festival industry, and his talent has enabled him to showcase his unique pop music around the world: from China’s Strawberry Festival to SXSW in Austin, Texas. Monokino collaborated with renowned artists and producers including Tony Visconti and Jacco Gardner.

Baby has been added to our New Music Spotlight playlist and we have also been exploring Monokino’s 2021 singles, Your Underground, Bend or Break and No Return, which are all taken from his forthcoming third album expected later this year.

The post Amsterdam’s Monokino releases moving and vibrant new single, Baby appeared first on KIMU.