Neutralmonism began as a project in which Nate Schmold would develop a style specific to his Mantra alias. It was an attempt to take what he’s learned in the years of producing techno, drum and bass, idm, hip-hop, and basically applying all of these principles to his new experimental approach.
Enter King Rhythm (Baltimore MC extraordinaire): He sends Neferiu a demo CD and Mantra instantly falls in love with his style. Mantra sends a couple tracks off to King Rhythm and the two have a very productive collaboration and essentially walk away with two stellar tracks together.
King Rhythm’s unique style on the mic not only flavors a couple tracks on the album, it inspires Mantra to start writing the hip-hop vox himself. Reaching deep into his brains, pulling out the most twisted of word-play nonsense, imagining words that defy meaning all for the purpose of building an incredibly experimental flow of timing and rhythm delivery. But the nonsense lyrics combined with twisted beats formed an odd sound development, so much that Mantra felt the essential theme of the album was something that hadn’t really been fully expressed yet. And possibly even with its completion is still not 100% solid. Basically put, Neutralmonism was meant to encapsulate the meaning of insanity; a twisted sense of perception serving as a sole representation of reality. The album represents Mantra’s own quirky way of thinking… saying it through an overdose of insanity-related themes.
About 1.5 years in the making, with his last physical release being the After 10 EP on Neferiu in Winter of 2000, Mantra has shown a completely different side with Neutralmonism. As an alternative to the bizarre, Mantra’s new sound redevelopment yields a mysteriously unique style that just aches to be heard by a larger audience.
