Despite a reputation as one of Nigeria’s most successful and best Afro-Beat boom bands, information about Monomono remains scarce on the Internet. Even the normally dependable, All Music Guide, lacks a bio on the three-piece outfit. I’ll presume it’s due to Google searches yielding results on “the kissing disease,” not Monomono’s definition in Yoruba: Dawn of Awareness.
Fronted by golden-throated frontman, Johnny Haastrup (also known as Joni), Dawn of Awareness saw release on Capitol/EMI in 1974. Unsurprisingly, it takes direct cues from Nigerian funk overlord, Fela Kuti, who’d previously employed Monomono co-founder, Friday Jumbo, as a conguero. In fact, the album cover even offers, “thanks to brother Fela, for the little hint that did a good job.”
But rather than succumb to sterile imitation, Monomono cook up their own sound, opting for a comparatively poppier aesthetic (meaning most tracks run in the four to six minute range). Nonetheless, if you dig Fela, you’ll love this, with star-scraping vocals, infinite organ lines, polyrhythmic drums, and supernal sax riffs, all snipped from the same sokoto.
Download:
MP3: Monomono-”Make Them (You) Realise”
MP3: Monomono-”Plain Fighting”
6 comments
reid says:
April 2, 2009 at 6:59 am (UTC -7)
oh, this is good, I got to find this for my dad
Aaron Kyle says:
April 2, 2009 at 2:46 pm (UTC -7)
Good find. This is good.
Curt says:
April 2, 2009 at 4:01 pm (UTC -7)
dynamite
TYPO-GRAPHICAL » Blog Archive » Monomono Are Ill says:
April 3, 2009 at 8:56 am (UTC -7)
[...] on a big Afrobeat/African funk kick lately, and yesterday music blog Passion of the Weiss posted up two really funky Nigerian gems by a little-known group called Monomono. Check em’ [...]
Jason says:
September 16, 2011 at 12:36 pm (UTC -7)
Tummy Touch and Soundway are reissuing the two MonoMono albums and Joni’s solo record this month. More info here: http://www.soundwayrecords.com/
Stephe says:
November 7, 2011 at 6:06 pm (UTC -7)
I just heard this for the first time – - HOLY SHIT!