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Album Reviews
Album Review: Manual – Drowned In Light (MakeMineMusic)
By Marc Samuels | Published on Tuesday 6 April 2010
Manual – aka Danish producer Jonas Munk – is one of a few acts content to ignore the derision shoegazing met ever since it fell out of its brief stint in fashion in the early 90s, to focus on fusing that genre’s key motifs (sonic adventures in mood and melancholy that created a kind of pastoral futurism) with beats and electronica.
Thus nu-gaze was born, and like the movement that spawned it, it remains infinitely more interesting and memorable than shoegazing’s effective other offshoot (tedious post-rock).
‘Drowned In Light’ will not be a surprise to those familiar with Manual. Like kindred spirit Ulrich Schnauss, the environment here is populated by lush washes of sound, shimmering synths and myriad processed guitars for which the word ‘curlicues’ was probably invented. Munk does distinguish himself from some of his peers though by harking back to the 70s and 80s by way of dated equipment (retro drum machines in particular).
At its least effective you could accuse ‘DIL’ of simply being redolent of any Cocteau Twins or Slowdive track minus the vocals. Certainly, there’s nothing here that hasn’t been done equally effective (by both Munk himself and others) before, but this is for the most part an accomplished example of accessible experimental music that oozes warmth and melody. MS
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