Long-running Toronto jazz group Monkey House have announced the details of their sixth album, Remember the Audio.
Led by singer, songwriter, composer, arranger and producer Don Breithaupt, Monkey House are celebrating their 30th anniversary this year.
Remember the Audio follows the band’s 2019 release Friday, which topped the iTunes jazz chart and hit No. 11 on the Billboard contemporary jazz albums chart.
While Breithaupt had already written most of the music before the pandemic, he says “at least half of the lyrics were written in the spring of 2020, after the world shut down.” Not surprisingly, there’s a sense of foreboding and doomscrolling that comes with Remember the Audio — including in the title of the album’s lead single, The Future is Almost Gone.
“I’ll cop to the end-times theme,” Breithaupt says. “The music isn’t downbeat at all, but under the shiny surface and the hooks… That’s why Mose Allison’s Ever Since the World Ended fit right in. I thought it would be a good coda for the album because it’s fatalistic, but it’s also really funny and not too heavy.”
The new album features their regular lineup of drummer Mark Kelso, bassist Pat Kilbride, and guitarist Justin Abedin, along with guests including trumpeters Randy Brecker, Guido Basso and Michael Leonhart, guitarist Drew Zingg, and singers Lucy Woodward and David Blamires.
Like the last three Monkey House albums, Remember the Audio was co-produced by Breithaupt and Peter Cardinali, with bed tracks recorded live off the floor at Noble Street Studios in Toronto.
Here’s the track listing:
- The Future is Almost Gone
- Remember the Audio
- New York Owes You Nothing
- We Will Meet Again
- Skin in the Game
- Before You and After
- Major Minor
- Last Days of Pompeii
- Do Whatcha Gonna Do
- Let Jenny Be Jenny
- Ever Since the World Ended
Monkey House’s Remember the Audio will be released July 15 via Alma/Universal.
