Monologues.

We're really excited to welcome Modern House Quintet to the podcast. The Parisian duo have been putting out some superb freewheeling analog jams in recent times, focusing on slow-burning grooves and melodic improvisation (see also some lush sounds under their Cyclades moniker). Their wonderful mix for us is almost entirely comprised of unreleased material, all made by their own fair hands as is the Monologues Podcast way.

*How would you describe your sound?*

It’s always a tricky question. I would say that I try to do different things every time. A concrete example : the new release (CYC 003) contains five tracks which are quite unalike : one is a piano and guitar "housy" piece. The other is more dub-techno oriented. The third one has a more delicate house feeling, whereas the next one has a breakbeat-jungle vibe. The final one is kind of a vibraphonic interlude.

*What and who inspires you and influences your sound?*

Lots of immense jazz musicians : Milt Jackson, Red Garland, Kenny Drew, Tommy Flanagan, Teddy Wilson, Oscar Peterson, Clifford Brown, Kenny Clarke.

Within the electronic scene : Lars Bartkhun, Basic Channel, Mike Grant, Omar S, Anthony Nicholson, Ron Trent, Volcov. Outside the electronic scene : Steve Reich and Philip Glass. On a different perspective, there is also the work of the dubplates & mastering engineers: Helmut Erler, Christoph Grote-Beverborg or Rashad Becker. The lacquering/cutting process has always been fascinating to me. It’s not an "influence" strictly speaking, obviously, but their work is impressive and it is inspiring somehow, yes.

There are also soundtracks and movies, of course : as such, the italian TV show "Gomorra" is a wonder ("Suburra" as well by the way). The guys from Mokadelic did an incredible work. And I really like Eric Rohmer's movies, even though there is little music in them. All these things have, one way or another, an influence.

*Can you tell us a little about this mix and what it means to you?*

The mix gathers strictly unreleased productions and one song previously released in 2018, on the Modern House Quintet label. I tried to do something varied, quite heterogenous so that the listener - and me - cannot be bored. Therefore, some songs are more techno, some have a sort of an ethereal atmosphere whereas others have a more "housy" feeling. Some are sketches whereas others are more "completed". About the tracklisting, I simply wrote "unreleased" with a short indication next to it, merely because I don’t have an accurate title yet, haha.

Tracklist:
1. Modern House Quintet - Unreleased (the atmospheric one)
2. Modern House Quintet - Unreleased (the jazzy/vibraphonic one)
3. Modern House Quintet - Unreleased (the slow techno one)
4. Modern House Quintet - Unreleased (the arpeggio one)
5. Modern House Quintet - Unreleased (the techno bassy one)
6. Modern House Quintet - LD 3 (MHQ 008)
7. Modern House Quintet - Unreleased (the strictly techno one)
8. Modern House Quintet - Unreleased (the jazzy one)
9. Modern House Quintet - Unreleased (the jungle/breakbeat one)

Want more music? Check out RecordReplay, our £10 second-hand bargain bin record shopping mixtape series.