- Eight tracks of punk piano house.
- The best L.I.E.S. tracks have always sounded like listening to Trax or Metroplex records through the effects pedals of your neighborhood hardcore band: classic templates delivered with a side of snarl and spit. Across the label's 13 year history, founder Ron Morelli has touched on other sounds—he's got a fondness for industrial and no wave—but, as Morelli himself demonstrated on this year's drum machine masterclass, the label is at its best its when working distorted beats like sourdough during Bread Week on Bake Off. Fabio Monesi is a natural fit for L.I.E.S. He turned up on sub-label Russian Torrent Version way back in 2016 and has been a consistent source of tunes equal parts scuzzy basement and soulful sky searching. On Piano Vandals, his debut for the main label proper, he delivers the goods with eight tracks that, to riff on the label's breakthrough record, are for club use only.
Piano Vandals is as L.I.E.S. as it gets. Every drum is brittle and jacking, the basslines growl as they try to break off their leashes and the strings and piano samples are rusted and serrated. Monesi strings these elements over vintage New York and Chicago house. He doesn't shy away from big peaks and troughs on the record. On the theatrical title track, he drops the drums for close to a minute, building tension in the melody, before he lets the New Beat fills come barreling back in. Or on the low-slung 80s sleaze of "Future Brain," minor rave stabs try to corrode the grooving Yamaha DX-7 bassline he lays front row center.
While all the tracks are bangers, he's got two major moods. There is the peak time fare like "Moonriver (Vocal Mix)." The piano and vocal ("Ladies and gentlemen/Yes they're here/The dream team is here") are like listening to a Marshall Jefferson record on the blown-out speakers of a rusted Delorean. And on album closer "Critical Rhythm," Monesi gets pretty close to starry-eyed euphoria thanks to the ascending chords and vibrato on the strings. Then there are the creepier tracks. Both "Harmony" and "Kit the Dog" are made for the hours when people are looking to make bad decisions. "Kit the Dog" goes electro while "Harmony" trudges along with the mechanical precision of lemmings falling off a cliff as a squiggly 303 soundtracks the death march.
Monesi has been releasing tunes for as long as L.I.E.S. has been in existence. And, like Morelli's outfit, he's a student of both the old and new school. He came up at the peak of the (slightly cringe now) outsider house sound, but was also putting out records by the likes of Gene Hunt and Jordan Fields on his Wilson records. Piano Vandals is everything that both L.I.E.S. and Monesi do well—unadorned, understated and unfiltered house music.
Tracklist01. Jack The Crow
02. The Piano Vandals
03. Harmony
04. Future Brain
05. Moonriver (Vocal Mix)
06. Moonriver (Instrumental Mix)
07. Kit The Dog
08. Critical Rhythm