Monotract is a 3-piece experimental music group based in Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 but originated in Miami

Miami, Florida

Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...

, Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

. The group consists of Nancy Garcia, Carlos Giffoni and Roger Rimada. Alberto Laburu recently joined the group in 2008.

Early years

The group began as an improvisational performance group in 1998, but over the years has worked on creating music with greater complexity and more song-oriented composition. The first self-released 7", Traffican't, contained musical selections assembled from the groups very first informal improvisational session in early 1998. A subsequent 2000 CD release - entitled Blaggout - on Animal World Recordings consisted of 30 tracks and 74 minutes of assembled song ideas, sonic experimentations, fully fleshed out compositions, individual member recordings, and a mish-mash of those elements together. The original release of this was notable for the shards of broken glass that covered the cardboard CD sleeve.

A full-length LP

LP album

The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...

, Pagu, was released in 2002 on Public Eyesore Records and featured the group's change of direction towards a more electronic sound. Using a mixture of hardware programming gear, distorted vocals and altered keyboard sounds the group focused on a more song-oriented approach for the first time and much of this was flexed during the band's 2002 tour of Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 and its 2003 tour of the US Midwest. Both tours featured track selections from Pagu re-created onstage with great difficulty.

New Monotract releases are planned for 2006 with a release on Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...

's Thurston Moore's label entitled XPRMNTL LVRS slated for June 2006 and a Load Records release entitled Trueno Oscuro for an April 2007 release. Both records are said to be more instrument-oriented, darker sounding and percussive while still maintaining their electronic

Electronic music

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

 leanings.

Of note is that all the Monotract members are of Hispanic

Hispanic

Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...

 origin (Giffoni is Venezuelan while Garcia and Rimada are born of Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

n parents) and it is an influence in both their lyrical and musical expressions - something of a rarity in the "noise" music community they are currently a part of.