Monkey House is an intellectual product of the singer-songwriter Don Breithaupt who, for his album projects, merges in a way tailor-made, musicians of different orientations. "Merges" does not necessarily mean that the band members are active at the same location for the respective album project. Rather, they deliver their contributions to various songs at least to some extend electronically. Monkey House is, to a certain point, a pure artificial product, created in the mixing console around a core band active in different studios by adding externally produced contributions thereto. Don Breithaupt had the idea for the band to be put together in a tailor-made manner for the respective album project already in 1992, that is to say still in purely analogue times, as now extensively mixing on the digital level was still future music. To the first album Welcome to the Club followed in 1998 the second album True Winter followed for its part by Big Money 2005 and Headquarters 2012. During the six to seven years between the albums, Monkey House was on ice and Don Breithaupt used this time not only to composition and new songs, but also to write music books and to be active as producer for projects beyond Monkey House, among others For Songbook I and II of the Breithaupt Brothers.
A car ride across the vast expanse of the American continent inspired Don Breithaupt for a good part of the songs of the latest Monkey House album Left. The first drafts of the eleven songs were made on tank and restaurant receipts and wraps of sweets as cryptic records of lilted ad hoc composed ideas, rhythmically tapped on the dashboard. Already in this raw state, Don Breithaupt compiled ideas about which soloist could make the best contribution. Jay Graydon, Elliott Randall, Drew Zingg, Michael Leonhart, Donny McCaslin, Marc Jordan, Lucy Woodward, and David Blamires, are the names of soloists who ultimately have actually contributed to the songs.
Also prominently casted is the core band with the drummer Mark Kelso, the bassist Pat Kilbride, the guitarist Justin Abedin, and, of course, Don Breithaupt on the keyboards. After the core band had laid the foundations for the songs, five horn players emerged in the studio in order to illuminate the already laid song fundament. Finally, the contributions of the various prominent soloists, which were delivered from Toronto, London, New York City, San Francisco, Chicago and Los Angeles, were added. After a few weeks of post-production, what was left on Left as some solid piece of music is a monkey house album.
A typical feature of Monkey House also on Left is the variety of different music styles and lyrics, which revolve around a variety of themes. The mood changes from pure melancholy in It's Already Dark in New York through over-the-top soul-feeling in the pop song It Works For Me, to the AC-Pop-ballade None Of This Would Have Happened. The extraordinarily successful sound of the high-resolution download is the icing on the cake of the latest Monkey House album Left with its chameleon wellbeing changing from song to song.
Monkey House