MANINKARIS
– Psychoide / Participation Mystic
(CD,
conspiracy)
Density is the result of space or rather the confines
of space and dynamics of movement. In my experience, in winding, droning
instrumental tracks what differentiates exciting music from boring one is
density. And the world of sound being built by selection of sounds and
atmospheres. The first is defined by the space that sounds open up for the
listener, its dimensions and extensions and then mainly of course how the
musicians move through their self defined universe of sounds. There are no
rules to this, and if I knew some, then I would definitely not tell them,
because I might be wrong and right around the corner there would be some
pleasant surprise for me, that probably would not be there, if I spoke too
loud. No, the navigation is artistic intuition as much as vision, and for
centuries it has been proven that two musicians playing the same notes on
the same instrument in the same timing under the same guidance, if one of
them is a great talent and the other is just mediocre, it will be easy to
hear. The selection of sounds, starting with the instrumentation and then
the usage of these, is partly discovery, partly ingenuity and partly pure
luck. If everyhting comes together fruitfully, then it is pure luck and
wonderful to hear.
The brothers Olivier and Frédéric Charlot from Paris
who stand behind Maninkari match traditional instruments (drums, keyboards)
with very old ones (cymbalom, viola) and add layers with new ones (samples)
and all together it really doesn’t matter because it is just exciting.
They open up a dark, sombre, sometimes disturbing, sometimes beautiful world
of madness, love and frenzy that seems to live underneath the average every
day live that is lead by people above. Like a dark secret or some dangerous
mystery lurking underneath the streets of Paris in the sewers, concrete
caves and catacombs of this 2000 year old city. These two songs on this EP
(and they take the extended play quite seriously) could easily stand for a
soundtrack of a thriller or mystic horror movie that has long stills and
panning shots of the early 19th century Parisian skyline or old
city, lots of shadows and mysteries and dark forces at large. I should
probably see that Jack the Ripper movie with Johnny Depp or even better
“Vidocq” again, I remember it to be a very cool movie. More important,
their songs form dense layers of sound taking the listener away with them
(me to 1870 Paris, it probably take you somewhere completely else).
It is not often you will hear strings playing pizzicato
rhythms on a release on conspiracy, neither music that manages to do without
the use of heavy, distorted guitars. Shora comes to mind, another exceptional release
stretching the musical mind of the average distortion-drenched dopehead more
keen on Boris or Fear Falls
Burning. More points for that facts on top. I don’t know why
the label chose to add remixes of the two tracks on this EP, “Psychoide”
is about 8 minutes and “Participation Mystic” is over a quarter of an
hour. Being done by Justin Broadrick / Jesu (Participation Mystic) and Robin
Rimbaud / Scanner
(Psychoide) is probably a good selling point, but in my opinion they only
add confusion to the whole set up. No, their remixes are in no way bad, but
in one way or another they don’t fit the atmosphere set up by Maninkari.
Scanner takes these dense tracks apart and highlights
certain parts, thereby procucing a piece of music that is as pompous and
pathetic as the score to “Pirates of the Carribbean”. No, Hans Zinners
music is probably better, because it better fits its purpose, whereas here
after having dived deeply into a wonderful movie taking me to another time
and place and challenging me with new ideas or my perception of history,
suddenly I am in frigging “Braveheart” or another history movement not
focused on content but on action. Okay, where is the beer and crackers?
Okay, I am overdoing it here, but I just want to illustrate that these
tracks don’t fit too well. So, a lot of you might say, now that it is
conceptually inherent in a remix that the atmosphere changes, and that is
true and usually I don’t care. But if I am taken on a trip and then
released, I’d prefer to set the next step myself. Justin Broadrick is not
as extreme as Rimbaud’s reworking, but his dark, sombre dub is also
outside the spacial universe of Maninkari, though I have to admit it is a
intriguing addition.
Anyway, in November there is double full length CD
scheduled by these boys and then we’ll know a lot more than we do now.
