Jonas Munk, indie wunderkind who most often records under the moniker Manual, gave me one of the most pleasant surprises of 2001--his first widely-available full-length, Until Tomorrow. It was a record of fine nuance, available on the then new Morr Music label, which functions as a sort of clearing house of sunny, indie electronica. Much of Morr's output has been a bit too sweet for this listener's tastes--but Manual hit just the right notes, with a satisfying blend of hip-hop beats, Slowdive or Durutti Column guitar swoon, and completely addictive melodies. Until Tomorrow was certainly one of my favorite releases of that year, and Munk followed it up with an excellent second effort: Ascend.

Now, in 2003, we have Manual's ep Isares--a twenty-five minute collection of four tracks. Part of the strength of Manual's music is its instant listenability--it's comfortable, like a well-worn pair of shoes. Manual's style is clearly informed by past musical acts we know and love, but shot-through with a modern flavor that makes the sounds of past masters more fresh and exciting. This quality is what made Until Tomorrow so satisfying--if you can imagine the delicate guitarwork of Vini Reilly matched with virtuoso drum programming, you're somewhere near the pleasures of Munk's skill.

Track one, "A Familiar Place," has an apt title, for this sounds like it would not be out of place on Until Tomorrow. The sound is moodier, but the textures and "scissor-sounding" beats are ever-present. This is an excellent taster track for what Manual was originally lauded for, though listeners already acquainted with Munk's work have heard this long ago. "Stealing Through" is a pretty, pastoral, reverbed guitar song--featuring some atmospheres that wax and wane along with the guitar melody. This is a dreamy, sedate track, setting the tone of the rest of the ep. "Wake" fully acknowledges Munk's debt to Slowdive (more, in my opinion than his tracks on the Morr Slowdive tribute Blue Skied an' Clear). Trancy, manipulated female vox coo along with stately-paced drum programming, sampled gull sounds, and guitar ambience. If you told me Rachel Goswell was the vocalist, I'd believe you--this is a perfect Slowdive "pastiche" which reminds shoegaze fans everywhere that the genre is not dead, merely transformed. Finally, "Horizon" comes a something of a surprise as Munk chooses to dispense with drum programming entirely to instead focus on a meandering, almost nine minute, near-ambient track. Here Munk reveals his hand too readily--the material is not strong or practiced enough in execution to support its length. This has none of the dreamy power of the more ambient tracks on Slowdive's Pygmalion, for example, which drifted purposefully while lulling the listener sweetly along. "Horizon" is ineffective, and merely drifts in and out leaving little lasting impression on the listener. An unfortunate misstep on an otherwise excellent little ep.

Isares proves to be something of a holding pattern for Manual, which leads me to believe that Munk may have exhausted his bag of tricks for the time being. Somehow the work seems constrained--like the cover art (very, very similar to Ascend's), Manual seems to be unable to rise above past works, perhaps preferring to offer variations of the same theme. While I dislike greatly placing pressure on artists to constantly update their styles to keep up with trends, part of me feels as if the sunny electronica championed by Manual and many of his Morr labelmates is a stylistic one-trick pony. If this is the case, listeners may feel that owning Until Tomorrow and Ascend (not to mention the fantastic Limp side-project, also on Morr) is quite enough Manual for their collections. Isares is by no means essential, but it does bring up compelling questions about where Munk's eventual directions lie. I'm reserving judgment for the next Manual LP release which will surely be the deciding factor.

On Static Caravan records.

since July 15, 2003