Artist description [munk]'s artistry is an accessible mixture of organic electronica, crushing rock and dark hip-hop flavors. His music has been featured on The Sopranos, WB's Charmed, online Abercrombie & Fitch promos and two installments of One Life To Live. "[munk] crafts his music with intelligence and panache. Can superstar status be far behind?" - The Boston Globe

Music Style breakbeat

Musical Influences nin, soul coughing, rage against the machine, rhcp, crystal method

Artist History It's been a crazy year for Boston based artist/producer [munk]. His genre-defying 2001 debut, "Anime Sweetheart", laden with nods from hip-hop and jungle beats to pop hooks and pure rock swagger, was lauded by the press, propelled into rotation nationally at college radio and even appeared in promos for Abercrombie & Fitch and an episode of the WB's Charmed. In diametric opposition to the performance philosophy [munk] adapted on "Anime" (99% of the CD was performed solely by [munk] himself), he then hit the road regionally with a full band and proceeded to claw his way through the ranks in New England. In the span of six months, [munk] went from a mere "blip on the radar" to opening slots for signed acts touring the region. As the audience grew, fans started to come from everywhere — including WFNX Program Director Cruze who invited [munk] to perform at the 2002 WFNX/Phoenix Best Music Poll. He was given the much-coveted slot along side National headliners for the station's big Summer event. [munk] was also invited to play such events as the 2002 WBCN Rumble and the WCYY (Portland) sponsored events. [munk] is now preparing his second release "Severed", which picks up where the more rock oriented tracks from "Anime" left off. [munk] explains, "Where the first disc was about liberation, celebration and beginnings, ‘Severed’ is focused more on darkness and endings and the solitude of loss." Walls of distorted, layered guitar line the CD as does ripping, tortured vocals in response to what [munk] himself terms "a personally crappy year". The twist on "Severed" is that none of the previous disc’s exploration of dance styles has been sacrificed. "I wanted to convey pain in the aggressive sound of the disc and there are some huge choruses here as well but the drums and bass are still aimed directly at your ass!" The band has been road testing the material live over the course of the past few months. "The energy level of the audience has increased by leaps and bounds. I’ve caught a girl clutching her chest and crying during a song and I’ve never been asked to sign so many body parts after a show. It’s really striking a chord, which I just thank God for because I’m fucking naked as hell in these new songs. Just raw, open wounds - it’s been scary". Further: [munk] was the winner of the ASCAP Popular Songwriting Award, 1999-2001. [munk] charted on the Billboard Broadband TOP 10, Oct./Nov. 2001.

Group Members [munk]

Instruments cubase VST, ESI 4000, JP 8000, EMU Mo' Phatt, EMU XLead, MC307, Fender guitars, Tobias bass

Albums Severed (2003), Anime Sweetheart (2001)

Press Reviews BOSTON GLOBE, September, 2002 Hayley Kaufman Go! has sung the praises of local producer Munk ever since we heard his CD '"Anime Sweetheart,'" overflowing with dizzy beats and hooks. Arbiter of cool that we are, we saw others jumping on the bandwagon, and buzz began to build. He crafts his music with intelligence and panache. Can superstar status be far behind? THE NOISE, December, 2001 Marissa Warner Wu I am in love with Munk. I pop this CD in my player and it hasn't left since. The blend of hard hitting hip hop beats and smooth electronic melodies, with the just the right dash of funk mixed in, is balanced at that perfect level that caters to both the bubblegum techno ravers and hardcore lovers alike. His stuff is madly addictive. Before you know it, you'll be skipping work to listen to Munk. Not long afterward, you'll start shooting up Munk in the bathroom. No really, it's that good. A perfect blend of irony (as in "Back to Hollywood"), ballads (as in "The Lies We Tell'), and just plain kick ass rock & roll. The pace changes with every song, keeping you glued to your earphones until the end of the album. Never a dull moment, I swear! It's the kind of music that simply oozes coolness. NORTHEAST PERFORMER, December, 2001 Jesse Harrison Located somewhere comfortably close to Nine Inch Nails and Machines of Loving Grace, Munk's artistry is an accessible mixture of organic electronica and dark hip-hop flavors. The fast-paced, percolating opener "Knucklebones" is a fine example. It riffs along behind a driving drum loop while Munk raps about his badness in full stereo. Samples and syncopation add grit to the mix. From lyrics to beats, Munk has a complete game. "I'm deep like an existential author" he contends slyly on track 3. The album sounds great, it looks great (slick CGI image of the Anime Sweetheart babe) and Munk's writing is strong enough for each track to have an identity. He nods to Japanese cartoons, Soul Coughing (Mike Doughty does a brief cameo), Fox's Dark Angel, and other stuff that's almost universally appreciated by boys grown older. Munk's spiffy superhuman ability: production. He cooked up this entire disc on a Mac G3 in his house, and it sounds lovely. His material crackles out of the speakers. Live guitar and drums are perfectly integrated into the mix, while retaining their inherent nastiness. Each song does its own thing but sounds cut from the same cloth. The mix is perfect, and there's no dross: everything's good. Mixing a home-studio CD to this production level is no joke. There's not a major-label studio in LA that could have done any better. Anime Sweetheart is fine, fine work. It gets progressively more danceable and more memorable as it goes, and that's from a strong start. If you like things that rock and shake, this is what you will enjoy. DIGITAL ARTIFACT, October, 2001 Brad Anderson "Munk's debut Anime Sweetheart will pleasantly punish your ears and force you to alter your listening habits quite dramatically on several levels. Anime Sweetheart is not your typical genre-specific collection of music, as one is quickly introduced to the opening cut "Knucklebones'" and its ballistic sortie of post - Earache Pitchshifter-meets-Techno Animal driven breakbeats, rolling bass rhythms and demanding vocals which command several double takes as if to say, "What the hell is this all about and where can I get more!" UK beats & breaks groups like Terminalhead, Supercharger and Manchild and the long away but not forgotten Propellerheads are not cited in the liner notes as influences, (but) Munk is arriving at a similar production focal point by merging fierce breakbeats, aggressive guitars and bass with rigidly hypnotic vocals and sampled bytes. Many of the tracks like "Supersonic," (and) Strip It Down" have dancefloor and remix potential and the "Lies We Tell" is reminiscent of a dark and brooding Lenny Kravitz. There is some hardcore jungle/drum & bass production, and a bit of brooding neo-industrial NIN cum Butthole Surfers production as well. Great voice Munk, and a wonderful doppelganger hybrid of Lenny Kravitz, Trent Reznor, J.S Clayden (Pitchshifter) and Gibby Haynes of The Butthole Surfers." SPLENDID E-ZINE, November, 2001 Amy Leach With the exception of a few appearances and samples from other players (like Soul Coughing's Mike Doughty on "What We Enjoy"), "Anime Sweetheart" is a one man show. Munk, formerly of Boston's super-G, is a product of the same intricate, slightly off-center mold that produced Moby, but with a bit more edge and a broader musical sensibility. There are heavy doses of hip-hop flavor here, as demonstrated in the Cypress Hill-like "Back To Hollywood", as well as basic soulful pop-rock a la Lenny Kravitz (see "The Lies We Tell"), but Munk does an astounding job of developing new approaches; his music never sounds run-of-the-mill, even when he's exploring the aforementioned styles, which have been well and truly played to death. However, "Anime Sweetheart's" main thrust is electronic beats and samples -- and once again, Munk brings refreshing new life to a genre overrun with sameness and imitators. For a break from the tiresome, check out the backbeats of "Quite Happy" and the laid-back funk of "Creative Destruction", both of which deliver above and beyond the cause of duty.

Location Boston, MA - USA

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