If asked for their musical influences, the Monks always give the same enigmatic response : the sound of nature. And while this initially may seem like mere marketing hokum, listen carefully to the typical tone of the “Kha Meli” technique and you may hear themes and noises reminiscent of the ramblings of a stream or a badger, lost in a wood.

Similarly spend time with a “Bh’en Geo” composition through stereophonic headphones and, in all likelihood, you will notice the sound of distant thunder or the flap of a bird’s wing in flight. Uncharitably, their tone is sometimes compared to the bellowing of the yaks they originally herded but such comments originate most frequently from people disgruntled with the exorbitant price of the limited edition extended version of ‘The Sound of Silence, Live at the Eden Project’ [see separate article].

So while the Gurtus claim no influences (except, perhaps, the great musician in the Heavens), they have certainly influenced many other bands. Notably, it was after hearing the Monks busking at Camden Lock that local punk combo ‘Polarity Station’ decided to swap their guitars and safety pins for saxophones and marimbas. Upon first hearing a Monks’ cd, Canadian solo multi-instrumentalist ‘Orange Hat’ retired instantly to fulfil his dream of refurbishing Bothy’s on the Isle of Skye. Perhaps most famously, Exeter stalwarts ‘So Hep’ recognised that lyrical clarity was no longer essential to modern music and recorded ‘So Much Fun’, complete with such nonsense lines as “Up the thing out there” and “There’s an anvil in my heart”. The singer was sacked shortly afterwards.