I Monster

All Music Guide:

Best known for the loungy trip-hop track "Daydream in Blue," a 2001 hit that has a lengthy and convoluted history of its own, the British production duo I Monster specialize in psychedelic, electronic-tinged pop confections that are often based around samples from easy listening records and other unlikely sources. Jarrod Gosling and Dean Honer met in the record section of the Sheffield City Library in the early '90s, an era when that city -- which had already been the site of major developments in electronica, during the heyday of synth pop in the 1980s -- was witnessing another musical renaissance with the flourishing of so-called "bleep music," thanks to the IDM pioneers at Warp Records. Inspired by the burgeoning local scene as well as their shared poverty and abundant free time, the pair got to work creating some abstract electronic sounds of their own, under the name the Anderson Shelter. Five years into their collaboration, having succumbed to self-described "bleep fatigue," they shifted gears in 1997 with a new name (taken from the 1971 British horror film I, Monster) and a new sample-based, song-oriented approach to music-making. The first product of these efforts, 1999's self-released album These Are Our Children, was given away for free, in a spirit of idealism. Around this time, Honer, also a sometime confederate of Add N to (X), got involved with the similarly styled electronic trio the All Seeing I, who found some mainstream chart success with their version of Sonny & Cher's "The Beat Goes On" and were even invited to contribute their production skills to Britney Spears' cover of same.

I Monster were put on hold to some extent for a few years (during which time Gosling stocked up on progressive rock LPs while working at a record shop), but they resurfaced in 2001 with a reworked 7" version of "Daydream in Blue," which had initially appeared on Children. The song, which samples heavily from a 1970 cover by the Gunter Kallmann Chorus of the Wallace Collection's 1968 "Daydream" (itself based on a melody from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake), adding incomprehensibly vocodered vocals and a bassline from Portishead's "Glory Box," was reissued yet again on London's Instant Karma imprint, eventually reaching the Top 20. (Coincidentally, the Beta Band used the same sample for their song "Squares," which was also released in 2001.) Since then, the song has appeared in countless soundtracks and advertisements, and cropped up again as the basis for Lupe Fiasco's "Daydreamin'" from his 2006 debut. I Monster followed this success with the singles "Who Is She?" and "Hey Mrs." and the album Neveroddoreven, which was similarly released several times, including on Atlantic in 2004. After another extended period out of public earshot, I Monster reappeared again in early 2009, offering free online downloads of their long out of print debut and issuing a soul-inflected new single, "Sucker for Your Sound," in advance of the album A Dense Swarm of Ancient Stars, released that March.

Wikipedia:

I Monster are an English electronic music group, composed of the Sheffield based record producers Dean Honer and Jarrod Gosling. They formed in 1997, and released their debut album These Are Our Children in 1998.

However, due to Honer being involved with hitmakers All Seeing I, it was not until 2001 that they released their first single, "Daydream in Blue", a remix of The Gunter Kallmann Choir's version of The Wallace Collection's "Daydream". The song was originally released on 7" on Honer's own record label Cercle Records, which he founded with Add N to (X)'s Barry Seven. It was later re-released with a new mix on Instant Karma (in association with their own label Twins of Evil); which has also released material from Kings Have Long Arms and Mu Chan Clan. The song also featured on episode 3 of season 1 in the BBC Television television drama Hustle. The track peaked at #20 in the UK Singles Chart in June 2001.

They released their acclaimed second album Neveroddoreven in 2003, which was re-released with a new sleeve in 2004. The band are regular guest DJs across the country, and have played live shows in London and at various European music festivals. Part of their live band is made up of Fred de Fred and Marion Benoist from The Lovers, on guitar and vocals respectively.

In 2007, I Monster started collaborating with Finnish pop artist, HK119, for her second album. The resulting project, Fast, Cheap And Out Of Control was released in September 2008 on One Little Indian Records, and saw I Monster co-write and co-produce over three quarters of the album. This collaboration came from Dean Honers previous role as a remixer for HK119's debut single, "Pick Me Up", from her debut eponymous album in 2006.

I Monster and their label, Twins of Evil, are both named after horror films.

Their music also been used in a number of films such as Shaun of the Dead, Riders (Steal), the snowboard video "From _______ with Love" (Mack Dawg Productions), and has been sampled by hip hop artist Lupe Fiasco on his second single, "Daydreamin'". It was also used in the Ford Focus ST advertisement in the UK, and was also translated into other languages (for example, Turkish) for use in other European countries. The "Glamour Puss" remix of their song "Hey Mrs." was used in television commercials for Absolut Vodka and television series Eureka. As well as this, their song "These Are Our Children" was used several times on the Australian television series Underbelly; and was subsequently released as part of the Underbelly soundtrack. It was also used as background music in episode 5 of the ITV drama Married Single Other. Their song "Heaven" was used in the introduction to the TV show Numb3rs in episode 21, season 5.

In 2009, they released the follow-up to Neveroddoreven, titled A Dense Swarm of Ancient Stars.

In 2011, they produced The Human League's Credo, the band's first album in 10 years.