7/10

There is a restless intelligence running through 'Mono Modern' that makes it feel far bigger than a standard independent album release. This is not background music for passive scrolling or neatly packaged playlist culture. It's jagged, anxious, deeply online and emotionally overloaded, a record that stares directly into the fractured psychology of modern creativity and refuses to look away.

Built almost entirely alone from a bedroom in South Carolina, 'Mono Modern' carries the fingerprints of someone obsessively refining both concept and execution. Xeno Ray JNB handles nearly every aspect himself, from composition and production to mixing and mastering, and that complete artistic control gives the project a uniquely personal atmosphere.

The shadow of Radiohead's 'OK Computer' hangs heavily over the record, as Xeno Ray JNB takes the alienation and technological paranoia of that classic album and drags it violently into the mid-2020s, filtering it through algorithm fatigue, creative burnout, AI anxiety and the exhaustion of constantly fighting to be visible as an independent black artist.

Throughout, the album is wildly ambitious. Ambient textures dissolve into industrial distortion. Glitch-heavy electronics stutter against woozy chillwave passages and abstract hip-hop structures. Some tracks feel haunted, others feel sarcastic, and several sound like they are actively malfunctioning in real time. Yet despite the experimentation, the project rarely loses cohesion because everything feeds into the same emotional landscape: disorientation inside hyper-modern life.

Lead single 'Everything is Chrome' captures the album’s personality brilliantly. What initially presents itself as an infectious electro-pop track slowly mutates into something darker and more unsettling, almost mocking the artificial gloss of contemporary music culture. The production sparkles and corrodes simultaneously, creating a tension that mirrors the album’s broader themes of authenticity versus manufactured identity.

Elsewhere, 'White Critic' lands with enormous weight. Structured almost like two interconnected movements, the track explores frustration, racial commodification and the way black artistry is often filtered through external expectations before it is fully understood on its own terms.

What makes 'Mono Modern' especially compelling is its refusal to smooth out imperfections. Xeno Ray JNB embraces roughness, accidental noise and emotional instability as part of the artistic statement. The album argues for humanity inside flawed creation, something increasingly radical in an era dominated by automation and hyper-curated aesthetics.

'Mono Modern' will not be for everyone, and it clearly has no interest in being universally digestible. But that is precisely where its strength lies. Xeno Ray JNB has created a difficult, emotionally charged and deeply contemporary album that sounds like someone trying to preserve human expression while the machinery closes in around it. It is messy, provocative and occasionally overwhelming, but it is undeniably alive.