some new stirrings
adderuppa - tear up you time sheets !
What others say ...
"Elastic Variations are what you hear when God's scalpel delivers the celestial lobotomy."
nme 16.5.94
"This is astonishing music, a liquidy headbox of aural shapes, whose forms hardly change yet seem to encompass infinite viscosity within them, like rainbow pools of oil on water."
wire 12.94
"Before you enter the maze, know where you will be exiting. Take note of any tall objects such as trees, buildings, or roads, which will produce noise. While you walk through, be sure to carefully note where you are. Remember intersections, turns, and checkpoints in the maze so you do not walk down the same path twice. Scored graphically then composed from the depths of a Roland R8 drum machine. Unsurpassed & totally unique."
www.everyoneforever.com
"The originality of his geological tones, laval creaks and spiralling keyboards should mark him out as an object of veneration for spliff monsters, sound junkies and avant gardists alike."
nme 24.2.96
"The only grounding is the cover art, the music and your imagination. Not much else needs to be said really other than this is a thoroughly unexpected bit of brilliance in a time when music is becoming sadly predictable : for electronic music fans this is a must."
connect 2.96
"Initially seems a lot more ‘straight’ than before as the use of more regular sounds in the rhythm and melody lines are recognisably similar to various techno and even ‘progressive’ records you may have heard before, but getting past that on repeated listens there is a deeply eccentric and sometimes overtly strange quality to this record which makes it transcend any attempt to pin it down. "
These Records
"Combining formal study ( he somehow manages to score his tracks ) with a wilful disregard for the gathering conventions of both electronica and the more arsefaced academicism of the hard disk set, Manning approaches the formal properties of composition with a discretion that might almost count as disinterest if it weren't for the emotional verity of his music. A few of the cuts integrate rhythms familiar to the armchair post-techno lot, with moments of these carrying off into an almost absurd corner of might be described as baroque-post-classical downbeat electro, combining slow, dense machine rhythms, billowing synthi breaths, electric piano trills, absurdly thick basslines, and spry, jumpy melodies as cartoonish as they are deranged. How Manning manages funk in such a context is beyond me, but there it is, a sort of fancifully formed soundtrack to an Oompa Loompa breakdance competition that never was."
urban sounds 3.98
"A record that's impossible to compare to any contemporary work within the genre, the resulting sound is utterly unique. Take, for example, the sublime closing track, an almost playful assemblage of piano sounds, harpsichords, and a percussive line that brings to mind Stewart Copeland's mesmerising sondtrack for the Rumblefish film. This is a joyfully fresh collection of new work from one of the true greats. Immerse yourself."
baked goods
"Nicely syncopated, very musical electronica that gets close to the eerie studio alchemy of Coil, but without the creeping dread or William Blake references. A special little record that hints at greatness to come."
muzik 7.01
"Strangely melodic IDM that straddles the netherzone between neo-classical composition and abstract ambience, this four-track ep is more beat-oriented than Manning's previous work, but it's just as enigmatically beautiful."
alternative press 12.01
"I find this LP should licence the German grammophon. A classical author simply. Super+diagonally in each regard, very much crunchy, and as on most its other LPs no longer in such a way Gloeckchen vernarrt. In the reason 'Chromium Nebulae might be' the entire Locust/Disjecta surrounding field into the bag. Much loop-oriented music, which again destroted its own sounds under the hand, without sounding academic thereby. In completely self-willed way this is the plate of Anthony Manning, which is still at the earliest Techno, but is also clearly as a follow-up of Sun RA to see. Very very closely, but never pressing"
techno.de
Version 1
Anthony Manning was first introduced to electronic music while studying Graphic Design at Falmouth School of Art, Cornwall, 1989-1991. The word 'studying' is used in its loosest and least appropriate sense. This first introduction was not an immediately successful one; he was fascinated by the sounds and production values of dance music, but couldn't see the appeal of its excessively repetitive nature, preferring instead the wider panoramas provided by the likes of Tomita, Fripp and Eno, Tangerine Dream etc. One night he found himself standing in front of a bank of very large speakers with strange chemicals running through his bloodstream. Soon after this event he found that he was developing a new list of 'favourite' tracks and artists, and that maybe there was something in this that was worth investigating.
While still at college he bought an old 4-track cassette recorder from a friend and set about constructing his own experiments in sound from samples of radio static, Camberwell Green tunes and dictaphone field recordings. It wouldn't be right to describe these first efforts as music. At around the same time he started to sketch out illustrations of structures that looked like they might describe what music felt like in the early hours while in a particular state of mind. He worked on them until they started to make sense even during normal waking hours.
These sketches developed into a series of scrolls, metres in length, very accurately drawn onto graph paper, visualising the development and reorganisation of elements. He was still collecting odd bits of electronica on irregular visits to the legendary Fat Cat shop in Covent Garden, but was becoming increasingly bored and frustrated with the music's general lack of progression.
Then, one day, as he sometimes did, he dropped into a music shop that sold conventional instruments, but which occasionally stocked second hand electronic gear. They happened to have a Roland R8 drum machine.
This was at a point when Anthony was thinking about buying something to make music that would hang on the structures he had been drawing. He didn't have any cash, didn't really know much about the classic instruments that most aspiring dance producers were buying ( the familiar 909, 303 and 101 etc ), and so was bewildered and frustrated by the variety and cost of the gear available. However, while testing the R8, and fiddling with the pitch adjustment in particular, an unusually vibrant light bulb burst into life and the sale was made.
An intense few months followed, during which it became very clear that the structures he had drawn were too prescriptive, that the machine he had bought allowed itself to be played and improvised on, much like a conventional instrument. These improvisations formed themselves into a collection of four chaotic but satisfying pieces.
During the same few months Anthony had been looking into the possibility of setting up his own label. When these four pieces were complete he sent demos to a number of distributors to guage the business viability of such a venture. It was made obvious, through the complete lack of, or bemused, response, that he was not onto a winner. However, one distributor, Kudos, suggested that one of the labels they handled, Irdial, might be willing to publish the music.
A telephone call was made, a tape was sent, another call followed, a studio was booked, a record was pressed, and Elastic Variations was born ...
Version 2
Anthony Manning produced a series of influential and ground-breaking releases on the Irdial and Germstore labels during the mid to late '90s. Most compositions were created on either a single, or very limited set of, instruments that were being used by most electronic artists to create 4/4 2-note dance music.
The most extreme examples are his first two releases, Elastic Variations and Islets in Pink Polypropylene, both of which were notoriously composed on an Roland R8 drum machine. Chromium Nebulae introduced a couple of low-fi keyboards, the first incarnation of the Novation Bass Station, and old Yamaha DX7, and is widely credited with spawning what is now labelled IDM, although amusingly, the pieces originally started out as an attempt to create a more standard dance product.
Chromium having taught him that he'd never be able to create a standard dance track even if he really really tried, Concision saw him dive into computer sequencing with the aid of an old Atari ST, the end product being a collection that made it onto many independant music journalists' albums of the year list.
A couple of weeks after mastering Concision most of his gear was stolen, and it wasn't until several years later that he was able to find some cash to start producing again. Liquid Quartz was produced on a Roland MC505 Groovebox, a grey tin that generally requires the user to exercise very little imagination in order to put together something that will pass as an 8th grade floor-filler ( which is what most of the thousands of units sold were probably used for ). Most reviewers of the pieces, even though they were told about their provenance, remark on the wide variety of instruments at Anthony's disposal. Mmmm ... if only !
In 1997 Anthony's path and that of the whimsical world of glamour briefly crossed when he was asked by Guy Sigsworth to remix 'Sway', a single that Acacia, his project of the moment ( backing vocals provided by one Imogen Heap ), were releasing on Warner. His contribution, enthusiastically received by Guy, was memorably described as 'irrelevant' by one of the kinder reviewers. Things took a more peculiar turn when he was asked to stand in for Guy as keyboardist on a mini tour of the country while Guy was bigging it up with Bjork. The band were driven around in a bus that the driver insisted was the very one that Oasis toured in when they started. The evening in Hull playing to two bemused people in a social club while the rest of the city was watching England playing football somewhere sunny is a fondly cherished memory.
And the rest ...
We understand that Anthony is building up steam to produce at least one more full length album that will be created on a limited palette of physical modelling software synths, that they will reflect the intent of Islets in Pink Polyprolylene, mixed with the clarity and musicality of more recent work. Don't hold your breath, you may be waiting for some time ...
His music has been used in a number of television and film productions. We have always thought that his compositions would suit animation. If you would like to use a piece for a project, or would like to commission a piece, do get in touch ...
Find out what others have to say about the music, and to listen to all the tracks, by hopping over to www.germstore.com
You may download, copy and distribute the above tracks freely, but the following very important conditions apply :
1. Do not sell any copies that you make or mirror.
2. Do not include our tracks in CD compilations that are for sale.
3. Do not use them in a broadcast or professional production setting.
... except, of course, if you receive permission by contacting either Irdial ( www.irdial.com ) or Germstore ( www.germstore.com ).