When you think rave parties, ‘arm folding’ and ‘pretentiousness’ don’t spring to mind.

But after performing at some of the world’s best rave destinations for the last decade, Phil from Monster Zoku Onsomb has every right to be a little cynical of Brisbane’s current underground scene.

“Everything has become so gentrified. There’s too much arm folding, too much sexy house, and there’s no proper raving. That’s why we go overseas, because there’s a real market for parties with every genre of great music.

They’ll have Richie Hawtin playing next to Venetian Snares next to Ed Rush. That’s proper partying,” he says. With a career spanning back to the early ’90s, Monster Zoku Onsomb have cemented themselves as one of the country’s foremost underground acts.

And while they’ve charted the genre’s high and lows, Monster Zoku have continued to stay true to their unique style, says singer Miss P. “The beginning of the outdoor party scene was about a lot of different styles of music being on the same stage, not split up into genres, and that is something we’ve always done in our music.

“We’ve always mashed a lot of styles in together, we’re not just one style, and that has been to our detriment really because no one can pigeonhole us. We make big music for partying to, whether it’s one style or the other.”

“We’re kind of this mixture between that mutant bass sound and rockabilly music,” adds Phil. “It’s kind of got its roots in old school aesthetics mixed with hoovers.”

Monster Zoku Onsomb have always embraced technology, incorporating laser beams, light helmets and synth swords into their infamously idiosyncratic live show.
“It’s all synched as well,” Phil says.

“It’s that thing of getting the technology as hyped as the show. As the music builds up the lights are more full on and lasers start shooting out of people’s eyes.”

Monster Zoku Onsomb headline the 4ZZZ fundraiser, ‘Double Dose’, at Coniston Lane Tuesday August 14.