MonoNeon is an artist for the digital age: full of neon colours, titles like 'Fairy Dust Supreme Pepperoni', albums lasting under half an hour (last year’s Jelly Belly Dirty Somebody was 22 minutes 1 second), and hundreds of YouTube videos – many of them short pieces of music based on speech mined from the Internet.

MonoNeon knows how to grab attention, but the dude can play. Fellow bass slapper and popper Flea said, when sharing Mono’s collaboration with Madlib, ‘Fallin’, “My lord this guy is the greatest fucking electric bass player. @mononeon Fills up my heart.” (Neon has repaid the respect by making a bassline out of Flea’s “Hey, somebody get me a fucking cup of coffee!”, taken from a Red Hot Chili Peppers promo skit.)

His videos end with the “MonoNeon art manifesto”, which includes principles like “Embrace juxtapositions” and “Childlike.” The fun is evident across his discography, which is already vast despite Mono being only 33 – he released three albums in 2022 alone.

‘I’m a Raggedy Bitch’ is based on an almost monotone chorus and the least romantic lyric including the word ‘heart’ you’re likely to find. Not instinctive starting points for many people, but not many people are MonoNeon. 

Although, maybe the chorus isn’t his creation. It’s mostly sung by Polychaos, whose vocals here are intriguing but intentionally limited. Their ‘Sweet Lights’ collaboration coming out under Polychaos’ name shows her wider range of tones.

Each vocal—Poly’s chorus, Mono’s verses, and Mono’s chorus ad-libs/overdubs—seems to have different acoustics. The parts may have been recorded on different days and in different settings. Who knows, maybe in different countries. Artists often send their parts across the globe now. Usually they’d try and cover that up with careful mixing and similar acoustics. Here, the contrast seems deliberately weird.

The slap bass on ‘Raggedy Bitch’ is prominent without reaching the realm of parody, which has been a danger for slap bass ever since the ’80s when people started basing entire tracks on the most artificial keyboard sounds imaginable.

The higher-pitch bass parts and hi-hat on ‘Raggedy Bitch’ load the song with itchy feet syncopation, even during the sleepy chorus vocals. Mono’s bass and a kick drum take care of the One almost every bar. Even if he’s ignoring other conventions, MonoNeon follows the funk fundamentals.