Staff Reviews

Manual - Drowned in Light

Review by Paul Clarke

The fact that you’re likely to spend so long pondering whether Manual has ‘it’ or not that most of Drowned in Light completely passes you by on first listen hardly bodes well for Jonas Munk’s first full artist album in five years.»

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on this latest album, drum machine loops and shimmering guitars (electric, acoustic, 12-string and flamenco) are bathed in analogue synth and modular effects, creating a lush, intoxicating sound that looks back to the 1970s and 1980s without a hint of the usual sleek irony or hip retro-revivalism, whilst simultaneously looking forward to a time when boundaries between programmed and played, and synthetic and organic, have become obsolete. the family tree of 'drowned in light' begins with harmonia, ash ra temple and ennio morricone in the 1970s, durutti column and cocteau twins in the 1980s, through to seefeel and slowdive in the 1990s. manual continues this lineage and pushes into new territories. a prime example is 'biarritz', where analog synth sequences that could belong in a tangerine dream excursion blend with elements of modern electronica, exotica and echoes of 80s- synth pop. in a similar fashion 'phainomenon' rolls along like a mid-70s ash ra temple jam until halfway, where the mood breaks and the track enters classic dream pop territory, leading to a dizzying climax. 'blood run' and 'afterimages', meanwhile, arguably possess some of munk's finest guitar playing, whilst 'pulsations' is, without doubt, the most cosmic, distorted and swirling psychedelic moment in the manual catalogue. in some ways 'drowned in light' reaches back to the early manual days of 'ascend', a result of munk's rediscovered love of working with analogue gear.
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