Monster Rally – Flowering Jungle
Artwork Flowering Jungle
„I want to be tropical Madlib” was Ted Feighan objective when he started his solo-project Monster Rally, tapping into the genre exotica. Having played as part of a screamo band called Driver Side Impact in Cleveland, Feighan’s sudden change of style to exotica music constituted a 180 degree turn. Exotica originated in the 1950s in the USA as a crossover of Brazilian/Latin American influenced jazz in the combination of intercultural music using instruments and musical elements from various preferably tropical, musical cultures.
Originally, Feighan’s dream was for his band to succeed and become famous. A record deal was signed quickly and the band was soon able to go on tour. His dream became true. But ironically, when he actually lived his dream it turned out he hated this lifestyle. Having lived in L.A., he decided to move back to Cleveland after eight years, and quit the band. Back home, he was able to escape from his former life by creating music with jungle and tropical samples combined with an authentic vinyl texture, first steps towards forming out the identity and style of his solo project as Monster Rally. The sampling technique he sues originates from hip-hop, which becomes audible in the tracks „Toucans“ and „Tideline” of the selected record Flowering Jungle. Through picking out specific sequences of old records, musical collages are being developed. Feighan draws pictures full of bright colors and sun-soaked scenarios. You can identify the texture of the original vinyl, which complements each track with a denser profile and vintage flair.
Beside his musical work, Feighan also works with art collages, for instance for the cover art of his records. „I’m working on both of them [collages and music] at the same time“, he explains in an interview with Mean Magazine. As well as the vinyl he discovers the collage material in many different places. In his own words „[Flowering Jungle’s] artwork mirrors this concept by featuring portraits of jungle birds in flower-adorned 'nests' overtop an abstracted flag of The Flowering Jungle.“
Listening to Flowering Jungle, which was released in 2017, I can comprehend Feighan’s musical approach in imagining a peaceful getaway.
„[Exoctica music was] a way to escape the grey and the anxiety and stress. I could just dive into these places and landscapes on the tropical records, and be somewhere different.”
Thus, take „Niñas De La selva” as an example: Feighan uses a bouzouki guitar that becomes the essence of the track while a dreamy rhythm is put on repeat. One is invited to an imaginary world, where you can drift away free of any sorrows. Or you might get drawn-in to wanting to hit the dance-floor and swing to „Giant Leaves’” upbeat and sunny melody. One the one hand the sound is very chilled through a casual hip-hop sound aesthetic that emerges through loose drumming samples. On the other side the track is lighthearted through a loose piano sample. Feighan…
„But it’s not so much about being in these places, it’s more about the fantasized idea of them. Even places that aren’t real. These days, everywhere has been discovered and people know about it. But what’s cool about these exotica records is that, when they first came out, this was how people learned about Hawaii and Polynesia. There was a mystique to them. They make you think about what a place might be, and that’s where the music takes you.”
Follwing a similar approach to Feighan’s idol Madlib, who is seen to be the biggest crate digger across all genres, he is a passionate record collector, too, and buys more than he has time to listen to. He likes to dig through exotica records mainly from the 60’s and 70’s. His soft spot is finding records of different genres in order to find new forms of sonic aesthetics that have a previously unknown craziness for him. Then again, he sometimes gets drawn by the cover art of a record. In the end he loves the surprise what kind of music will await for him behind a cover art. Considering his humongous pile of records he buys to create a new album, it appears to be challenging to make his way through the material. „That’s one of the hardest things, cutting the music.”, he admits. „I have to trim it down to what carries the narrative.”
Indeed, the album’s sound tends to repeat itself as all tracks normally follow the same pattern, so one might it find shallow: he cuts the samples, integrates them together and lets them spin and repeat themselves until the finish of the tracks. However, that is what might be necessary to brighten up your mind and to get that holiday feeling going: sunny melodies and easy-going beats to create some easiness through sonic light of the pictural sounds that Monster Rally creates. You can wander off with your thoughts because it does not matter as you do not have to accomplish anything at all whilst being on vacation.
Listen to Flowering Jungle on Spotify:
