Dam Mantle – WE (Wichita)
5/5
By: Josh Daniel
Glasgow based producer and experimental musician Dan Mantle, otherwise known as Tom Marshallsay releases this 30 minute WE EP this week. With elements of juke (as far as any middle class white boy can tell), dubstep, jazz, glitch and hints of previous tour-mates and fellow electronic revivalists Toro Y Moi and Gold Panda, his sound is one of deserted urban-landscapes, akin to Burial but somehow more sincere, detached, confused and lost (if being lost can be as liberating as it is strangling).
Don't let the mention of jazz scare you, it's more like when Squarepusher seemed to take too much valium and make something you could actually listen to without fidgeting. That's not to say you couldn't dance to it if you didn't want to – footwork YouTube clips welcome.
With Boards of Canada-esque, glacial, dew-dripping backdrops coupled with monstrous, warped samples and sudden changes of aura with a couple of simple clicks, there is a definite sense of isolation and longing; something you might not expect from the burgeoning Glaswegian electronic scene.
As the man himself recently described to our own Mike Harounoff in interview: “...when you twiddle the nob on a drum machine a couple of milimetres to the right or you move a snare back a beat it starts resembling a sound or memory from a totally different place or origin. That’s when I feel you escape the idea of borders, musically and therefore politically.” Borders are being broken down here people, listen up! It's this separation, invented from a few (mis)placed notes/beats that captivates - a less obtrusive kind of glitch.
'Not a Word' almost demands a night drive through South London, smoke in one hand, Amon Tobin record in the other (feet on the wheel). WE could be Sebastien Tellier at his insular, Moroder-esque best, minus the sexual undertones and the other two tracks 'Meet Me in the Ambulance' and 'Somnambulate, My Dear' will overdose you in sleeping pills and cough syrup, but leave you teetering on the brink of that netherworld.
This teasing, beautiful, challenging record is something special. You may just be surprised that it's the UK producing such a mellifluous, puzzling and learned sound.
WE EP by Dam Mantle
Artists in this article: Dam Mantle
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