THE MONKS Black Monk Time (2009 US exclusive limited edition 18-track CD album - the Monks occupy a unique position in the history of 60s music, often hailed as a precursor to the 70s punk movement, incorporating elements of minimalism and repetition which would come to be associated with the Krautrock pioneers. Employing pounding drums, fuzz guitar [and bass!], harshly percussive electric banjo and topped off with a demented vocalist, the Monks only ever recorded their own dizzyingly original material, which was so at odds with mid-60s trends that they were forced to implode barely 18 months after forming. Consisting of 5 US GIs stationed in Germany, they started out as The 5 Torquays, peddling typical German beat club material to enthusiastic drunken crowds in Hamburg and Munich - in mid '65, they met Walther Niemann and Karl Remy, 2 'existentialist visionary' students who convinced the group to abandon their current direction and go for something more original - out went the rock 'n' roll covers and goofy stage antics; in came dark, original material, black clothing, and to top it off, authentic tonsures!! No group looked or sounded like this in 1966! This delicious reissue contains the full album, plus bonus recordings taken from non-LP singles, a live-on-TV improv called 'Monk Chant' and a previously unreleased 1967 version of 'Pretty Suzanne'; superbly packaged in gold-embossed mini LP-style gatefold pasted card sleeve with 36-page booklet with in-depth liners, interviews, lyrics and a wealth of unseen photos - sealed & stickered)