Manitoba - Up In Flames

  by Benjamin Howarth

published: 29 / 5 / 2003

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Manitoba is, according to his press release , one of the leading figures in the electronica scene (although I’d never actually heard of him prior to this album, so we might assume that ‘leading figure’ refers to his self image rather than his public one!). But he’s had enough of electronica.             Ha Ha. He’s not the only one! Quite frankly, there’s only so many times you can listen to someone mangle beats on a computer into... well... something that is beats but has no beat. I’ve well passed my tolerance threshold for this genre, since it claims to be pushing music forward but hasn’t really gone anywhere at all, except deeper and deeper inside itself. The only electronica records of the last two years I’ve heard and consider of any value are by Fourtet and Boards Of Canada, the only bands/artists that realise they have as much of a responsibility to the fans as to the critics.   Anyway, Manitoba has also had enough of this dreary excuse for a music scene, so he’s left his laptop at home and bought some real instruments. 'Up In Flames' is in his words an attempt to combine his electronic background with the influence of Mercury Rev and Brian Wilson. The cynic in me says that this is his attempt, after hearing the last Fourtet album, to copy it. But I’ll pretend that isn’t the case because this is actually quite good. The combination of beats and summery melodies with a melancholy undercurrent works well. If you’re looking for a new album to stick on and just sit back, relax, and let it wash over you, then this is pretty good. On the other hand, if you’re interested in admiring the technicalities of musical craft, innovative production skills and all that jive, then this is about as good as you’ll get.    But, whilst I can and do admire this record, I can’t say that it’s a personal favourite. The tunes just aren’t catchy enough to cover up for the fact that there’s not a lot of emotion invested in it. The lyrics are pretty meaningless. Basically a load of kinda thrown together wacky phrases, they sound vaguely interesting but they tell you nothing about either your life, Manitoba’s or indeed anybody else’s. I know that a lot of people will adore this kind of arty escapism, and I know it’s really really good at what it does, but there’s nothing in this record that draws me back to it. It’s not at all bad, but I do think that this record has received a lot of attention that it probably doesn’t deserve. The real test will be if people are still talking about in a few years time. It’s so hard to judge that when the indie scene in general is much more interested in being cool than actually buying the best records that are coming out. This has had uniform glowing reviews in everything I’ve seen, and in light of that, this adequate record is a let down. I was so excited about hearing it as well…

Track Listing:-

1 I've Lived On A Dirt Road All My Life
2 Skunks
3 Hendrix With Ko
4 Jacknuggeted
5 Why The Long Face
6 Bijoux
7 Twins
8 Kid You'll Move Mountains
9 Crayon
10 Every Time She Turns Round It's Her Birthday

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