Mana Records - Vessels In July CS

From Boomkat...

Andrea Zarza (curator at the British Library Sound Archive) and Matthew Kent (Blowing Up The Workshop) showcase their excellent Mana Records label with the latest in the Good Morning Tapes mixtape series, taking a scenic route through myriad atmospheric, experimental x blissed zones from across the globe.

Now six years deep into their thing, Mana have made a strong impression with some 20 odd releases ranging from reissues of french concrète sound poetry by Luc Ferrari, to contemporary US synth music from Madalyn Merkey, Hiroyuki Onogawa’s Japanese cinema soundtracks, to killer Indonesian rhythms by the Uwalmassa collective. 

Over the course of 95 minutes we hear all those circles, and more, bleed into a deep blue balm for the senses, ripe for soundtracking heavy-lidded trips. The mix spreads a breadcrumb trail of subcontinental Indian traditions and then fans out across ambient lullabies of unknown provenance, to luxurious sound bathing, 4th world fantasies, earthy folk chorales, and contemporary prompts to dance from the western club rhizome and the fertile global south that underlines it.

The A-side is the more calming of the two, traversing blessed devotionals to sun-dazed flutes and wringing jaw’s harps, thru radiant pads and chambered keys to passages of full-sunk dub and heart-in-mouth come-ups. Their B-side is better defined by its light-footed optimism, where feathered electronic rhythms guide us toward new age jazz dance spirituals and autotuned South American trap, thru to sloshing ambient techno, bhangra and Kelman Duran-esque roadwise psychedelic collage.

You’re in good hands with this one, twice over.