ManifestiV
– Einer Sie Gern (Pilcrow Magnum Records)
CD
/ DL
Out
Now
8.5
/ 10
Experimental Industrial duo release their debut
album.
Based on California, ManifestiV are no amateurs. Made up of Taylor on guitars and programming,
and EvE on a shredded and rebuilt vibraphone, the pair have made an album which
is both hard-hitting and addictive.
Opener, the ironically named Pop could well be
the soundtrack to a movie. It’s epic and
rough, yet still has enough rounded edges to see it become widely acceptable. It’s also an interesting start to the ten
tracks – an instrumental acting almost as a prelude to the remaining
collection.
Taylor and EvE took their time forming the
band, originally meeting at a Dallas mortuary school in 2011, it was 2014
before they formed the musical venture.
To describe their sound isn’t easy.
It’s experimental for sure, with industrial Goth overtones and they
probably wouldn’t object to any Nine Inch Nails comparisons, but in essence
they seem to have created a niche sound.
Literally translated as ‘one you are happy’,
Einer Sie Gern weaves itself through haunting melodies and effects taking in
some epic sounding percussion and guitars along the way. Snow, for instance is almost nursery rhyme
sounding with its soft repetitive hook and Damage too is addictive in an almost
musical box sort of way.
Rid Of Me rocks up things wonderfully, guitars
rip and synths screech and accompany amply.
Yet again, ManifestiV piece together a track which is not only powerful
and anarchic but also blends in enough pop sensibility to make them
appealing. Think maybe along the lines
of Sisters Of Mercy and you get the idea of where their audience could well
lie.
Some burbling, bubbling effects underpin an
almost horror sounding Screams before a rawer Can’t Stop provides one of the
many album highlights with the link between alternative and commercial making a
very satisfactory meeting point.
I Can’t See You sees the digital version of the
album end on a sombre note and one which leaves the listener wanting more. The track meanders and wanders effortlessly
over an industrial ambient soundscape which lends itself as much to originality
as it does to bravado.
The Nine Inch Nails connections continue on the
cd bonus track, a version of How To Destroy Angels’ Ice Age originally recorded
by Trent Reznor and wife Mariqueen Maandig.
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