Manatees - The Forever Ending Jitter Quest Of Slow Hand Chuckle Walker: An Introduction To The Manatee
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Epic sludge brilliance. Mon Feb 19 07:05:20 2007
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| by Emma Gould | ||
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Manatees debut album claims to be untitled, however, its subtitle is longer than my arm: "The Forever Ending Jitter Quest Of Slow Hand Chuckle Walker: An Introduction To The Manatee", yep, more than a touch over the top and pretentious. Never mind though, because like the terrible band name it doesn't prepare you for what lies within, which is actually brilliant and inventive stuff.
Manatees sound is seriously sludgy; so slow at times that they almost crawl to a stop and so heavy and down-tuned that the noises they produce almost disappear out of your range of hearing. They seem to owe a debt to Swans; doom laden and very depressed, but they manage to squeeze more than a tune or two in there and have an epic prog edge that saves them from being a band that will only appeal to a select few. The opening track clocks in at a massive 15 and a bit minutes but it's hard to tell where it ends as the next track blends right in to it. This approach works really well for their sound which starts slow and dreamy like Godspeed You! Black Emperor and builds to a crescendo of heavy doom laden metal.
What makes Manatees so interesting and lifts them above the competition is their use of really interesting percussion which plays a big part on this record; using such unlikely objects as fire extinguishers, bike parts and coat hangers creates some really interesting soundscapes and means they have a really full and varied undercurrent of noise running throughout. On first listen, I was convinced that the vocals on this album were a drawback; although it makes them more commercially viable to have vocals and they can act as a counterpoint to the sludge by breaking things up, they felt at times like an afterthought, and I thought that most of the tracks wouldn't suffer at all from being instrumental. However, as I made my way through the record it became clearer that the vocals were an integral part – they treat them as they do the rest of the percussion, as a tool to create a certain sound.
Don't be fooled into thinking that this record is all doom and gloom and quirky noises, rest assured that there are moments of real beauty and reflection here; think maybe of bands like Isis, where the dreamy melodic sections puncture through the wall of noise and screaming bringing a euphoric release - the combination of quiet reflection, quirky and inventive percussion and heavy sludge makes this album a real pleasure to listen to and one that you'll want to revisit as often as possible.
Track Listing
01 - Unknown