SEVEN STEPS BEHIND by MANA
Description
Hyperdub’s Danielle Mana really comes into his own with the illusive animations of ‘Seven Steps Behind’, his debut LP and 2nd release under his own name, following years of work as Vaghe Stelle, and alongside Lorenzo Senni in One Circle
Twisting synthetic instruments to resemble semi-acoustic, chamber-like abstractions of grime and deconstructed club musics, Mana’s music now, more than ever, possesses an expressive electronic quality perhaps best compared with the work of Arca, or his former collaborator Lorenzo Senni. From the proggy trance hymn ‘Myopia For The Future’ to the autotuned avant-synthpop of ’Soaking In Water’ Mana distinguishes his sound from the hyper-contemporary fields with big highlights such as the queasy, weightless R&B of ‘Talking / Choking’, and utterly unique pieces like the unpredictably morphing ‘Swordsmanship’, and the chromatic nose-drip reggaeton of ’Solo’. For our money it’s one of the stranger, more fascinating Hyperdub album in recent memory.
