New project on Dynamophone: Ryan Hicks

Great review for 'Belkiss'

You can’t say Jorge Mantas produces a lot of music, but with some regular measure his name pops up in Vital Weekly as The Beautiful Schizophonic and usually I like it quite a bit. Perhaps because the music appeals to me, but also because Mantas doesn’t use laptops in an ordinary way, nor does he present it with the air of remoteness, being aloof and all that. In fact he embraces the listener, makes grand gestures and is wandering soul - a hopelessly romantic person perhaps. I never met him, so I am merely speculating here. On ‘Belkiss’ he makes the next move in his career. On three of the thirteen pieces he has a vocalist who sings her moody tunes to sorrowful piano music and bits of reverb. Otherwise Mantas uses his laptop processing like he did before: sustaining, warm, ambient, with processed vocals, glockenspiel, guitars and field recordings and makes highly introspective music. A true mood engineer. Like with his previous releases, there isn’t something here which we haven’t heard before, but Mantas belong to the best in the genre of ‘warm microsound’. The humming at times reminded me of Enya - and I am still trying to work out if that is good or a bad thing. There is always an element of risk in this music: it might become very kitschy. The vocal pieces show that already. The Beautiful Schizophonic walks a tight rope, but somehow I think Mantas is aware of that, and that it’s all a deliberate play with images, genres, styles and he succeeds very well to play his audience. (FdW)

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Seven Saturdays, Aftergloam, Jetpacks and Laserguns - Tickets - El Cid - Los Angeles, CA - June 22nd, 2013

With the help of current technology, Jetpacks and Laser Guns mixes the grit of modern indie rock with the synthesized style of the 80s, creating an atmospheric live experience. In March 2009 MI gradua

See Seven Saturdays live at Satellite, Los Angeles, Dec 5

A great 'Remaining Sounds' review from Poland!

Grzegorz Bojanek begins 4th annual Polish/Chinese Experimental Music Tour