MENIMALS 'Menimals' Vinyl LP
artist: MENIMALS
title: Menimals
catalogue # REPOSELP050
format: Vinyl LP
LP Tracklisting :
A1. In This Unforgiving Heat
A2. Dodecahedron, The Window Sphere
A3. Tetrahedron
B1. Transition From A Cube To The Octahedron
B2. Bird On The Wing As A Hinge
Limited edition black vinyl LP with double sided insert
ABOUT THE ALBUM/BAND
For Menimals, melody is the medium to delve into the mysteries of chaos and creation.
Menimals opens a gate through which Doctor Forge and the creatures he engineered deliver their luminous messages of myth and truth to the world. Their improvisational investigation of kraut-rock with strong ambient influences reflects an experimental worldview that reveals itself in the lyrics, visual aesthetic, and in the hypnotic live performances.
Menimals offers not just concerts but cinematic events in which they reconnect with the mysticism of nature. Breaking the boundary between men and animals, they interact with the audience through the psychedelia of their soundscapes. Live performances are rare due to the frail state of Dr. Forge's health and the fact that he lives secluded upon another continent, North America, while his creatures toil in the hills of Northern Italy.
The man/animal musicians are specifically designed to be the sonic representation of the cosmic beauty and symmetry embodied in the Platonic solids, the classical elements of alchemy, and the symbolic animal spirits whose masks they wear:
The Rat: Drums/Hexahedron/Earth
The most stable element, the layer on which the other instruments stand.
The Chimera: Bass and Additional Guitar/Icosahedron/Water
Is complementary to earth and is the most mobile element.
The Gryphon: Guitar and Production/Octahedron/Air
The water lies on the earth, the air lies in the surface of the water. Constantly flies between melody and noise.
Doctor Forge: Voice/Tetrahedron/Man/Fire
The most mutable and unpredictable element. May be a spark or a blaze. It carries the light. It's the lantern in the dark that shows the way.
The four Elements together create the Dodecahedron – aether, void, or quintessence, the most subtle and incorruptible element. The medium of sound, it is inaccessible to all other senses. This is the MUSIC of Menimals.
Menimals' debut album is "a symphony of solids in five movements" -- a reference to the five shapes that make up the Platonic Solids and from which each of the Menimals was conceived. Dr. Forge, with his scorched lungs and frail bones, weaves an archetypal story of the hero's journey through the five shapes related to the elemental root symbolized by each of the characters of Menimals. From the known to the unknown, each unknown becomes a familiar -- a spirit-creature of mysticism serving as spy and companion and jester. In the music, the listener is given both solace and a challenge to transcend.