3 out of 5

Label: Fonolith

Produced by: Neil Scrivin

I love The Night Monitor conceptually. As Neal Scrivin’s outlet for narrative electro noodlings, soundtracking select oddities from history, even the name of the project evokes great vibes. Matched with some great art, and Neal’s ace ear for retro production, you read about the story’s whichever album is scoring and you’re ready to go; often a few melancholy notes in to an immersive opening theme – I’m even more sold.

The final results tend to lose me a bit, I’m afraid, and the albums / EPs don’t always hold a thread from song to song. Indeed, it seems most NM releases – The Black Monk of Pontefract included – are recorded over several years, and though I trust Scrivin is purposefully curating and creating for a project, I suspect something about that leaves me dry.

Black Monk has both the limitation and benefit of a very short runtime, as the music does stick to a kind of 60s sci-fi vibe – which maybe makes it sound more playful than it is, but there’s a certain bounciness to the tunes that a quoted reviewer in the media copy is ascribing to a Doctor Who sound – but while that tonal linearity is nice, there’s simply not enough runtime for it to fully work its magic. If Neal could’ve extended the EP to a full-length, something like the alien computer bleeps of ’30 East Drive,’ or the peering-into-nothing creepiness of closer ‘A Study in Destructive Haunting’ would have space to take full effect. In this 5-song take, though, it’s just a taste, and unfortunately not enough to feel like it tells a whole story.