Manipura "s/t" LP
[Speeding Across My Hemisphere]
Here's some rather good experimental electronic music from Oslo, Norway. The fonts are damn near impossible to read, which drives me nuts because I can't make out even one track title, so I have no idea which song is which, and I can only assume that I guessed properly as to which side was A and which side was B. I'll just have to review this as a whole, because I don't even know how many songs there are! For the most part things are very musical and far more professional than I had in mind for whatever reason. Orchestral synth textures and chilled out beats, that sort of stuff, it's all used very well. There are several more "experimental" moments with some harsher tones or less structured dark ambient material, but the focus on mood is never abandoned. At times there is some instrumentation such as bagpipes, horns, guitars, etc. that could be sampled or done with synths, but I know that some of the guitars are improvised due to their clashing with the programmed rhythms and such, so it can be interesting. Even though stylistically there can be some jumps, I like the fact that all of the tracks basically run together seamlessly. Some of the more minimal soundscapes bring to mind recent Ulver outings, but this isn't quite as good as Ulver of course. In rare instances the beats become faster, leaving the chilled out fare in favor of more dance-like territory. Thankfully these occurrences are rare, as the more ethereal/melodic synths and calm beats are infinitely more interesting/enjoyable. Vocals even come in at one point - singing that sort of borders on speaking, layered with whispering. The full color sleeve displays an oddly colored landscape with large, blurry handwriting in the background. It looks like a video still or something like that. Very strange. The black record jacket inside is a nice touch, though. I'm just so fucking annoyed that the fonts are illegible. This is a nice piece of work. At its best this is really pretty exceptional, and at its worst it's mediocre and bland, but the good definitely outweighs the bad. I'd like to hear more from this artist. (7/10)
Running time - 45:00 (approximately), Tracks: ?
[Notable tracks: I have no clue what the titles are, but most of it's pretty good]
Speeding Across My Hemisphere - http://www.suggestion-records.de

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