Monkey Okay Premiere “The Long Haul of Cercopithecoidea” Live Session; Offer Bandcamp Discount Code
[NOTE: Right now, Monkey Okay are offering 20 percent off to anyone who sees this post. Use the code obelisk_discount to redeem at https://monkeyokay.bandcamp.com/. Thanks to the band for their generosity.]
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Danish atmospheric heavy rockers Monkey Okay released their second album, The Long Haul of Cercopithecoidea, in Dec. 2020, and thereby began a collaboration with visual artist Peter Max-Jakobsen that continues now, the painter improvising a piece two weeks ago at a live show the band played at the Rodløs Kultur Festival in their hometown of Aalborg. The video premiering below was filmed earlier, but follows a similar idea, as the five-piece render the LP’s 22-minute closing title-track in its entirety while Max-Jakobsen provides visually creative accompaniment projected on and behind them.
“The Long Haul of Cercopithecoidea” — its title referring to any number of species of apes formerly found in Europe — of course has room for such exploration with such a runtime, but it is one of five tracks on the album and by no means the only one boasting an experimentalist edge. To wit, opener “The Spiral” is a three-minute airy psych flow, gradually building up to the transition into “S-G-G-Y” — “she’s gonna get you” — which is more straightforward in structure, verses, choruses, vocals, and so on, following
its Hendrixian pulls and classic heavy-stomper drums to a place nonetheless definitively Euro-futurist. In turn, the catchy-heavy-meets-cinematic-atmospherics of “S-G-G-Y” gives way to a sample or spoken word (hard to tell; it’s manipulated either way) piece “Boatman SE 84 Pt. 1,” which runs nearly six minutes, is the penultimate cut on side A, and is marked out by all manner of twisting and turning effects along with the words being vaguely delivered in signal-from-beyond fashion.
There may be a narrative at work, I don’t know, but “The Soldier” turns back to more direct songwriting and the back and forth across these initial four tracks is a fitting setup for “The Long Haul of Cercopithecoidea” itself, which is an engaging work of progressive heavy, dug into its message to be sure, but still able to carry the listener along its course, working in various movements as it goes from its first verses into a solo jam, increasingly noisy then barely there in sparse guitar and vocals as it begins to reconstruct itself headed toward a second and final apex, gradually, patiently. It is an inspired piece, and leaves little to wonder as to how a painter might therefore find it inspiring, but an essential component too is inevitably Monkey Okay‘s performance of the track, which in the live session below, is also precisely where it needs to be to bring the audience on board.
I don’t know the band’s plans from here with Max-Jakobsen. They have a third album at some stage of progress, but whether the visuals will be involved there, or if they’ll tour or do something else together or what, I’m not sure. But it’s only fortunate they’ve put together this video, since the collaboration is worth preserving/documenting, and even in this many-live-video’ed era, it stands out and feels like something not everybody would be able to offer.
So please, enjoy:
Monkey Okay, “The Long Haul of Cercopithecoidea” Live Session Premiere
The band is very proud to premiere this video through The Obelisk, and to celebrate they are giving a 20% discount on everything in the Bandcamp store, which can be found here: https://monkeyokay.bandcamp.com/ and the code is “obelisk_discount”.
Follow the band at https://www.facebook.com/MonkeyOkayRocks to hear more about their forthcoming 3rd album, which is currently in the works.
Monkey Okay featuring artist Peter Max-Jakobsen + visual art association PixlArt. Performed live at the Hideout studio Aalborg, Denmark.
Filmed by Anders Christian Rasmussen
A Collaboration of Art
Early in the process after the recording of the album’s title track and centrepiece, The Long Haul…, the band began a collaboration with acclaimed Danish artist Peter Max-Jakobsen on the visual aspects of the release. Akin to the uncompromising approach the band applies to the creative process of making music, the collaboration with Peter Max-Jakobsen likewise was uncompromising and took some unexpected turns. He ended up creating a 6,5 feet tall painting inspired by the music. This massive piece was turned into 4 different vinyl editions where both the cover art, vinyl colour and of course the audio are integral parts of the album’s artistic expression.
Holy shit that was amazing. I’m pretty sure my coffee got ice cold while I sat there rapt watching that video. The visuals are outstanding. And the song was so great, I’m off to their Bandcamp. Thanks for putting this up JJ!
I’m so glad you dug it! Thanks for checking it out and for the comment.