It's been a very interesting ride this past year. Seems like everyone I know has experienced some serious transition. The world in general seems to be in a real phase shift, and Monkey Bars is no exception. Doron decided this year to go in a different direction musically, and I for one am excited to hear where he goes with all his prodigious talent.

Meanwhile, I'm still carrying the torch! Look for at least one more Monkey Bars single on Subliminal this year, along with solo and collaborative releases of mine on Clover Club and other labels under my name: Gabriel D Vine. I've been working with Eric Davenport and Alex Fino, both extremely talented DJs here in sunny L.A.

At the moment, I'm putting together a new DJ mix CD in anticipation of my trip to Europe in July. I'll be out there for a month and can't wait to check out the scene in more detail. Full report to follow.

Till then, keep on flossin', and remember to squeeze your toothpaste tube from the bottom. I'm OUTTY like ... um what rhymes with that other than Audi?

-- Gabriel

For all you fans who just can't get enough news about your favorite House producers, we've decided to kick things up a notch with this neato blog/journal section. Also it gives us a chance to vent our excitement on you, our unsuspecting public!

Well, now that our album Food-Eating Food is actually available in stores, we feel like real pro musicians. Just kidding. I mean seriously, you really think that funky burger on the cover makes us look pro? In any case, Gabriel's a vegetarian, so that's already a strike against the art.

So we've been struttin our new "trough-style" DJing in the Los Angeles area now, and we have to say it's a total blast playing live instruments and samples along with records and CDs. We're actually playing on a yacht tomorrow, how rad is that?

Onto new projects. We're working on some tasty new treats in the studio now. First off is "I'm From Europe," a salute to the bird-shagging, tea-slurping, and footie-watching punters on the other side of the Atlantic, with Gabriel on vocals. Then the first track officially featuring our incredible new singer Rachael, called "Piece of Mine," kind of our first foray into a more Euro garage sound. Also, we're working on a new vocal samba-house number called "Never Be the Same" based on a track that our old fans will recognize from our instrumental live sets. It's a wistful, nostalgic song about lost times and loves.

Needless to say, the album production and promotion process has been quite long. At times it just seemed like May 2004 would never come. But now it's here and our very first album is actually for sale. We've always considered the album as the modern musical long form par excellence, and are proud to have contributed our piece to the canon. That is, if it survives the apocalypse.

-- MB