Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The landscape of music without lyrics is more than a sense of hypnotic undertow designed to give the listener an ambient journey with their own thoughts, it is also a gateway for the vibe and effect to slowly enthuse the soul with a feeling of spontaneity, a crash course in the art of understanding two or more emotions coursing through the body at once, the symmetry of the simultaneous to which we hear all but understand more when not dislodged and disconnected by a voice that is not our own.
To feel this sense of connection the return and material driven instrumental electric pulse that comes from Manatee Commune, the signature pseudonym for Seattle’s Grant Eadie is a welcome one, a reminder that evolution within music is always possible, and one that gives the new album Simultaneity its deluxe belonging; and as the album flows with a hypnotic rhythm, with a sweeping gesture of ease programmed with an allure of technology that could be mistaken for magic, for the entrancing belief of the thrill being sought.
Across tracks such as Mosaic, Path, Faulted, and Touch Theme, Manatee Commune stretches the depth and width of communication, the removal of words adds to the maturity of expression with a grace, with a natural drama that is beguiling.
It is in the symbolic throws of music that we find our own words, our own natural gestures in response to the shapes in the air that surround us, those vibrations that catch our ears and proceed to inform the mind that there is something else in the universe greater than our understanding…words may explain, but sound can resonate where there the function to speak is unavailable, where the world can be muted by outside forces.
A riveting examination of audible insight, Manatee Commune is ripe for exploration in Simultaneity.
Manatee Commune release Simultaneity on June 19th.
Ian D. Hall