Saturday, June 2, 2012

Manorlady - Boyhood Freedom lathe 7" on Cellar Hits Records


Pat over at Cellar Hits out of Cape Cod has been busy working on two new releases, this one sided split lathe cut single from Manorlady and a big split 12" with The Zookeepers + Signals, which I am definitely going to get to sooner or later...but I got a chance to check out this one from 'a family band' out of Charlottesville, VA and it's heavy on the electronics

The only side track, "The Lines in the Corner of Your Face" has a big, electronic, epic rock feel with those clear, weirdo clicks and glitches, rifling away under a massive delayed guitar. Lots of moody electronic atmosphere and a clear up front vocal steering this into a classic dance place. Still though, there's slightly cheap, thin sounds, that go right back to the ancient Cure style with that chorus laden bass. Or that re-appreciation of classic dancepop by I love You But I've Chosen Darkness. They balance this sense of nostalgia and being completely into those sounds that were and still can be great. It seems like you only notice this snare is pure machine when it starts pounding away. There's tons and tons of character going on here with stacks of layers, so when the whole track drops out to go quiet goth, the off kilter thred bare electric that builds and builds gets to sounding like post punk. That distorted electric goes from just sad and distant to aggressive and downright mean. A steady deceptively dance-y beat kicks in again and takes this one out to the end. Reminds me a lot of that Virginia Plain single I keep going back to...privately when there's no one else around to judge me.

Manorlady are a three-piece family band from Charlottesville that play real dreamy pop music. Thick mid-tempo drum machines and slow moving bass set the backdrop for murky keyboards, sweeping guitar chords and interwoven boy-girl harmonies. The band recorded Boyhood Freedom for this lathe release while working on their second LP 'Ego Oppressor'.
Check out the track and grab that lathe from Cellar Hits:



Turns out I reviewed the wrong track! The one cut into the vinyl is "Boyhood Freedom" and sounds to be going more heavily slowdance shoegaze, it's making me want to go dig out my Sugar Tax cassette.




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