Ben Mono

Ben Mono (aka Paul Beller) is a successful DJ and producer hailing from Munich, and he’s releasing his second full-length, Hit the Bit, on Compost Records. Informed by the minimal techno roots of his homeland of Germany, he explores what he calls "bit hop”: stripped down hip-hop and electro sounds (think electro-crunk) combined with a number of samples and spoken word. Throughout this album, you’ll hear pitched down shuffle tech and click house, futuristic, funkified beats, old school synth lines and influences that range from dark electro to synth hop to drum & bass to R&B. Mono features a whole whack of MCs from around the world: Toronto radio host and spoken word master Jemeni; Sonar Kollectiv artist Capitol A; female crunk MC trio Yo Majesty; and beat boxer extraordinaire Killa Kela. Hit the Bit is full of hyphy party tracks and booty burners, with quirky samples, slicing, angular beats and thick breaks that drop like bombs but are still spacious enough to have socially conscious lyrics in the forefront of all the songs.