This landmark release fills in vital details of a how a band of ex-GIs marooned in Hamburg in the mid- 60s transformed from a thoroughly average beat group (The Five Torquays) into an effective ‘anti-Beatles’ (the wholly unholy collision of punk attitude and proto-Krautrock propulsion henceforward known as the mighty Monks). “Instead of playing I Wanna Hold Your Hand we were playing I Hate You, But Call Me,” says chief sermonizer Gary Burger. “And there is a vast abyss between that and this.”
The story involves the intervention of German intellectuals Walther Niemann and Karl-Heinz Remy (anti-George Martins, if you like), who worked with the group to live out what amounted to a situationist statement. What’s really fascinating is the way these studio-recorded demos aren’t as black as the finished Black Monk Time LP from the following year: vestiges of beatdom still remain among the staccato rhythms and anti-melodic organ, guitar and scything electric banjo. Hear how the Monks honed and captured their intensity on the LP proper rather than submitting to the usual ‘watering down’ production process. Year Zero rewinds to 1965.
