Monophonics

Monophonics, originating from the Bay Area, fuse the weightier psychedelic textures of soul and rock from the late 1960s and early 1970s with further strands of era-specific R&B and jazz. The ensemble, active from the mid-2000s onward, introduced itself via Playin & Simple in 2007 and completed a second album prior to the arrival of Kelly Finnigan. Serving as singer, songwriter, arranger, producer, and keyboardist, Finnigan has since directed the group across four studio albums that reach into the 2020s, ranging from the robustly funky In Your Brain of 2012 to the loosely narrative Sage Motel of 2022, which conjures an earnest Blaxploitation soundtrack. The 2023 single “Untitled Visions” appeared in tandem with Kendra Morris.

The group coalesced in San Francisco during 2005, assembled from members of three prior bands that included the Monophonic Orchestra. Lineups, both founding and later, have encompassed saxophonist Alex Baky, drummer Austin Bohlman, keyboardist Colin Brown, guitarist Ian McDonald, percussionist Kyle Middlebrooks, trumpeter Ryan Scott, and bassists Yuri Whitman and Myles O'Mahony. Kelly Finnigan’s addition after the first two albums—2007’s Playin & Simple and 2010’s Into the Infrasounds—marked the decisive personnel shift and positioned him as the central creative force.

Once Finnigan joined, Monophonics secured a deal with Ubiquity and delivered 2012’s In Your Brain, an album that balances hazy and fervent qualities while featuring “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” and “Foolish Love,” both exceeding one million streams. The band then operated independently, releasing Sound of Sinning in 2015 on Transistor Sound, named for their Bay Area studio. Their fourth album absorbed elements recalling the Zombies and Pink Floyd before The Dark Side of the Moon, while retaining allegiance to Norman Whitfield’s most expansive Motown productions and vocal ensembles such as the Delfonics.

Subsequent singles appeared on Transistor Sound and Colemine before Monophonics finished and issued their fifth album, It’s Only Us, on the latter imprint in 2020. The record stretches out on the seven-minute “Last One Standing,” a perseverance anthem that emerged as the group’s most streamed track and later received a 7" edit. The cinematic, Curtis Mayfield-derived sensibility of that song shaped the next album, a set centered on a fictional, long-established inn from the 1940s, which surfaced as Sage Motel in 2022. The band then teamed with Kendra Morris on the 2023 track “Untitled Visions.”