Tokyo's Manathol is an enigmatic figure. Via his My Space page, we learn that he was born in 1975, that his full name is Manabu Richard Nagao and that his mother and father were both drummers but aside from this the cryptic announcement "I want exhaust sound" hardly sets out to illuminate his listeners.
A clue to his motives can be gleaned from the album title which is an amalgamation of the Japanese words for transform/disguise ("bakeru") and person ("hito").
This is machine music where the human involvement is neither absent nor transparent.
Seisen sounds like a pinball machine playing itself and shfbv is coldly detached but the spliced up warped beats of a track like Ram-11 show that this is not some exercise in soulless ambience.
His beat addiction consists of repeated squalls of digital manipulation and you won't feel short-changed by the epic 76 minutes and 19 track package.
The album also boasts fantastic artwork of Rika Ishi whose work can be admired on the Layer Of Scum blog.
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Yet it is nigh on impossible to place, categorise or readily process the range of content here. Consumed whole risks information overload but taken in digestible bits/bytes yields a brainstorming multi-dimensional sound experience.
Recommended entry points are the hip-hop meets electronica collage of Data Castle , a positively funky track with (unintelligible) raga vocals and the equally frenzied PitchedUpp Mr Lucky Holiday (feat. Cutsigh).
The result may be by turns infuriating and fascinating but whatever 'Exhaust Sound' is - I want more.
Rika Ishi's artwork
Manathol on MySpace
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