The Madelaine Affair

Monitors, a rock band described by Rolling Stone Magazine as “producing an outstanding musical fusion,” return with their debut album, The Madelaine Affair.

A collective of English, Bosnian, and French nationalities, the band formed in Paris in 2017 and signed to Manchester-based label AnalogueTrash in 2021.

Fuelled by a desire to produce challenging, provocative, life-affirming material, the band is also a formidable live act, having toured extensively in both France and the UK, where they have built a loyal and significant fanbase.

Their previous EPs, Notes From The Aftermath and The War Office, tackled themes of political corruption, isolation, addiction, and ecology.

The Madelaine Affair was co-produced at the Parisian studio La Canopée and features two standout collaborations: with the band Caesaria, who set the stage ablaze at Eurockéennes 2024, and with pop artist Abel Chéret.

Madelaine refers to Proust’s line about the senses triggering memory, the loss of innocence, the distance of memory, and the pain of grief. The album cover shows children playing in a bleak neighborhood, a nod to singer Chris’s Irish roots and bassist Emil’s heritage from the post-war Balkans.

Composer Emil states: ‘In an increasingly harsh world, our music is meant to be a refuge, a shelter against adversity. We remain pacifists, probably utopians, but more than ever, convinced that we must stand together. And even if everything falls apart around us, there will always be moments to stay united together, and to celebrate our love for this music.

Lead singer and lyricist, Chris Remick, adds, “The new album is Marinetti’s manifesto brought to life: sing the love of danger, the habit of energy, the beauty of speed, motor cars running on machine-gun fire. Beauty exists only in struggle. The Madelaine Affair is a modern cacophony of violent inspiration, angelic epiphanies, and radical transformation.”