American Monoxide is the project of the Arizona-based musician Dimitri Manos. This past December, the artist released his Kids Against Human Heads album via Bandcamp. Active since 2014, Manos is a multi-instrumentalist with a penchant for home recording. While previous album releases like 2016’s Web Content and 2017’s Always Be Quitting featured more standard indie rock instrumentation, Kids Against Human Heads finds American Monoxide in a more electro mode.
Having injured his hand while recording his most recent effort, Manos found himself having to employ keyboard, sampler, and drum machine in a more central role for the album. Standout tracks like “Compu-Core,” “EMP with Nacho Cheese,” and “Megasoid” pulse with electro’s funk stylings while featuring hip-hop inflected beats and samples. Calling the aesthetic “slacker techno,” Manos’ playful approach to composition is evident throughout these laid-back but always exciting cuts.
Employing an eclectic approach throughout means that Kids Against Human Heads is full of surprises as Manos’ wide-ranging ability finds him traveling diverse musical territory on the new album. “RTZ” leans in a more indie rock direction as it reels in a lo-fi wooziness with reverb-laden vocals, while the Sugarbush cover “Shake, Shake, Shake” rollicks with hyperactive synth-pop energy. However, the album also finds the musician exploring ambient terrain on songs like “Lansen C,” “Planetarium Style,” and “YAM 30” rounding out the album is a spacey dreaminess.
You can listen to American Monoxide’s Kids Against Human Heads below. Additionally, Dimitri Manos recently took time to answer some questions about his newest release, so don’t miss those after the Bandcamp embed below.
LETV: You’ve released a handful of records over the past couple years, how does “Kids Against Human Heads” stack up to them? What makes this release different?
DM: “Kids Against Human Heads” is more electro than previous albums, as I departed from my comfortable/familiar instruments: drum set, electric guitar, bass, percussion. They do appear on a few songs, but are not nearly as foundational as usual. I wanted to experiment with new ways to build up tracks…which became mandatory after I injured my hand at the same time I was beginning this record. My hand has since healed, but I wasn’t able to play guitar or drums while recording most of “Kids Against Human Heads”. Every American Monoxide record highlights keyboards/samplers/drum machines, but I hadn’t ever sparked-off tracks with them like this. 7 out of the 10 songs on “Kids Against Human Heads” are totally electro, and that’s what makes this release stand out the most to me.
LETV: You call your style “slacker techno,” what techno artists are you influenced by directly? How tongue in cheek is this genre tag, or is it totally sincere?
DM: It’s sincere. “Slacker techno” as a mood is especially embodied by tunes like Compu-Core and Megasoid. Also, I’m definitely a slacker when it comes to learning and creating techno. Some inspirations have been thrift store surprises: a 90 min cassette devoid of info called “The Acid Tape”, a vinyl single of The Klubbmasters “Here I Am”. The driving repetition of these albums is one of my favorite aspects. I wanted to try some of that approach with my music, partly as a way to buck standard pop song trappings.
LETV: I hear other elements of hip-hop, chillwave, cassette-fi production, where else do you draw inspiration from (musically or otherwise)?
DM: Joking and not joking at all, I’ve always wanted to find the balance between Cold Crush Brothers and The Dead C. More attainably, I’ve drawn much inspiration from the minimal approaches of musicians I’ve worked with. I play in an ambient/experimental musical collective called SRS, through which I’ve been able to collaborate with people I admire. Recently, 3 of them have put out minimal records I really like: Karima Walker’s abstract folk album “Hands In Our Names”, The Dictaphone’s (Jérémie Morin) dirty minimal synth driven “How To Improve Your Relaxing”, and pretty much anything Caleb Dailey has released on his label Moone Records.
