Newly issued on vinyl for the first time ever, Interstate was arguably both Monolake’s full-length debut and the only fully collaborative release from the original duo of Robert Henke and Gerhard Behles. While it has not yet become as revered as some of Monolake’s other early albums, the reasons for that are primarily due to context rather than quality, as its predecessor Hong Kong was a collection of the project’s killer run of singles of the iconic Chain Reaction label, which would be quite a tough act to follow under any circumstances (and this was definitely not the follow up that any Chain Reaction fans were expecting).
Interstate was also followed by quite a hot streak from the more conventionally beat-driven and Henke-centric iteration of the project, yet this album remains a very cool and unique outlier that lands quite a bit closer to cutting-edge sound design than it does to classic dub techno fare. In an oblique way, however, this short-lived incarnation of Monolake turned out to be even more influential than their beloved former label, as Henke and Behles spent much of the ‘90s co-creating the Ableton Live software together and Interstate is an eclectic (and electric) showcase of all of the wild and boldly futuristic new Max/MSP sound processing techniques that were about to rewire the electronic music world forever.
As a longtime fan of both Chain Reaction and dub techno in general, I have always considered Robert Henke to be both a visionary and an exacting producer, but it wasn’t until this current reissue campaign that I began to appreciate how truly unconventional and eccentric Monolake were in their prime. In fact, there is not much here that resembles techno in any way that truly matters, as Interstate is essentially a far-out foray into urban field recording and psychedelic sound design rather than a functional dance album. While there are certainly some beats and bass lines to be found, they tend to be more of a percussive undercurrent that subtly propels these “ecosystems of sound” forward rather than any sort of a visceral, dancefloor-igniting groove. In short, Interstate feels far more like sophisticated sound art with a beat than an overachieving techno album enhanced with cutting edge sound design.
In keeping with that theme, Interstate’s beats frequently subvert the expected 4/4 kick drum thump of dub techno with a shuffling, stumbling, disjointed, and organically convulsing array of “kaleidoscopic micro-rhythms,” while most of the accompanying music consists of crisply textured, “exquisitely dynamic,” and spatially mobile non-musical sounds. While many of the usual tropes of dub techno (deep bass, reverberating chords, shifting cymbal patterns, etc.) are generally still present, they tend to drift through these pieces like ghosts rather than serving as a foundation. In fact, most of these pieces feel far more like the ambiance of a subterranean parking garage, highway tunnel, train station, or pond that has unexpectedly locked into a rhythmic pulse while trippy sounds unpredictably morph and pan around the inside of my head.
Given that, the closest thing to a hot single is “Tangent II,” as a 4/4 thump and an insistently repeating chord anchor a skittering and volatile groove as it burrows though bubbling and gurgling spasms of tripped out sound design. Aside from the comparative solidity and insistence of the kick drum and a cool dragging bass throb, “Tangent II” is also unique in featuring a climactic hook of sorts, as a seesawing two-chord pulse gradually emerges near the end of the piece. Elsewhere, “Tangent I” weaves similar magic, but lacks that satisfying late-song sense of everything finally locking into place, while the closing “Terminal” beautifully skitters and lurches its way through a train station with uncharacteristically warm chords and an unpredictably alive and gently jackhammering pulse.
In keeping with that theme, the best moments of Interstate are a shapeshifting and radically “organismic” headphone experience that feels like a psychogeographical tour of an imagined and futuristic Berlin and its surrounding environs. As such, it is understandable that Interstate has not been as celebrated as other early Monolake releases, as this album captures the project at its most boldly weird and uncompromising and there are not a lot of solid grooves to latch onto. That certainly makes it an aptly titled release, as it is essentially a bridge between two different eras of Monolake. Notably, however, this transitional album feels like its own unique place rather than a mingling of Monolake’s past and future visions. Instead, these pieces feel more like the work of a drum machine that has suddenly become sentient and has begun supernaturally animating and reshaping the sounds of its surroundings into a hallucinatory symphony of cars, birds, sloshing waves, dripping water, and rattling metal.
For me, the most revelatory moments tend to be the ones when that hypothetical enchanted drum machine takes a vacation beyond the city limits (such as the squelchy and insectoid “Gecko”), yet this whole album is incredibly sophisticated and adventurous in a way that feels razor sharp and precision engineered even when it sounds like someone just dropped a tray of ball bearings down an echoing stairwell.
Hearing this album now in 2026, I am retroactively a bit bummed out that Behles left the fold to focus on Ableton after this release, as his Monolake swansong was such a dramatic creative leap forward for electronic music in general. Consequently, I cannot help but wonder where this project may have gone if they had continued in this ambitious and deeply unconventional direction, yet those regrets are thankfully mitigated by how successfully Henke transitioned into a leaner, more beat-driven vision while still maintaining a similarly exacting approach to sound design. In fact, one could argue that Monolake continued to get even better, as future classics like 2001’s Cinemascope were still to come. While there are arguably several other Monolake albums out there that surpass Interstate in one significant way or another, it is equally true that none of them sound quite like this one and that is what makes this album such a special and unique entry in the project’s rich & influential discography.
