Band : Man Man

Album title : Rabbit Habbits

Label : Anti-

Distributor : PIAS

Release date : 14/04/2008

Release : CD

On one of the two pages Man Man occupies on Myspace , they put down a very nice little story about their coming in existence, which I simply didn't wanna hold back from you, so here it is:

"Before the beginning...     Before the world came into existence, all was chaos, unimaginably limitless and without shape or form. Eon followed eon, particle became mass: then lo! out of this boundless, shapeless mass something light and transparent rose up and formed the heavens. And from the heavens fell five shapes, loud and heavy and jumbled, and from these rough forms were shaped and sculptured the first firsts: Honus Honus (the High-August-First-Voice), Sergei Sogay (the Divine-Center-of-Four-Strings), Pop Pow (the August-Beat-Divinity), Critter Crat (the Divine-Twang-and-Everything-Else) and Chang Wang (the Other-Twang-and-Wondrous-Everything-Else). And they set out to fill the yawning void that gripped the Earth, and they crammed the emptiness with sounds, of voices and guitars and drums, yes; but also with squeaky toys and pots and spoons and cap guns and chopsticks and old shoes and fruit and stuffed frogs. And such was their exuberant good time, and such was the mess they made, that they did not see their jealous creator, envious of their ingenuity and novelty items, sneaking up on their ebullient pandemonium and casting them out...    Today...    In their lost divinity, Man Man took up residence in Philadelphia..."

Thus far the band's own words, time to return to reality and a more down-to-earth presentation of this wacky quintet (which has in the past been temporarily expanded to a sextet). Why do I call 'em wacky? Well, because in a way they àre truly nuts! Not only do they play a completely anachronistic kind of music...which when truth be told is closer at home in the post-60s Pshychedelic Rock area than anything else...but they also use the most wacky assortment of "instruments" to produce their very specific sound. It starts in the appalingly attractive vocal landscape. Frontman Honus Honus (who also handles an apparently vintage and primitive Rhodes organ, and most probably also brings in extra sound with more modern electronic devices – the band's descriptions aren't uite clear about that, being somewhat criptic to say the least) has a somewhat uncommon vocal signature, fittingly described as "gravel pit forethroat", which he also uses somewhat...shall we say "psychotically inspired" at times? He's vocally backed by whomever in the band happens not to be playing some kind of blowing instrument (here's where the toy department certainly comes in for the first time, but also more "serious" instruments like clarinet and trumpet will be used) at that time, the most attractive at times is the female ones by Pow Pow . I'm not sure if she has other functions in the band besides bringing a certain sex appeal and an occasional female backing vocal onto the stage, but I'm sure that she'll occasionally be handling the band's extensive percussion (which even includes very simple chopsticks). Although there's two guitarists in the band, this does nót mean that the sound is guitar-oriented! In fact the keyboard certainly has an general overtone here (except when the xylophone – told you this act was weird! - takes the overtone). Besides, with both guitarists also handling a variety of other instruments (the aforementioned trumpet and clarinet, but also the occasional bit of piano, cello, and marimba – some of which is apparently in constant use). And it would seem that even the bassist and drummer occasionally step down to handle a different instrument (synth in the case of drummer Sogay , with the bassist taking over percussionary functions).

It would really go too far to try and give you more than a description of how the band sounds, because each and every song deserves to be analized separately (they even have a short song on this album where the vocals are vocodered for futuristic effect), so maybe it's time for you to direct your attention to the band's Myspace pages. Plural? Yep, seems like when promoting their second album (2006's Six Demon Bag , originally issued through the Ace Fu label – who also delivered debut album The Man In A Blue Turban With A Face – the album was re-issued on double 10-inch vinyl by Free News Projects ), the band made a completely new page (myspace.com/manman190) where 4 songs off that album were posted. At the same time they also put up some extra songs on their regular page (myspace.com/wearemanman), where even now you can still find two songs off the debut, an extra off the second one, yet another extra coming from I don't know where (because it ain't indicated)...and finally the one ( "Top Drawer" ) off the current album. Which is already a good indicator of what you can expect, as it embodies the use of that weird organ, the xylophone, some guitar (don't expect any heavier than this here, okay), the wacky vocals...but without Pop Pow !

In hindsight (hum...could that be Pow Pow 's be-hind...just joking guys!) this highly original band is something quite different. Not really the kind of music the usual Concrete Web visitor will be goin' out to the shop for, I'm afraid...because I suppose our readers could rather be categorized as people listening to somewhat harsher kinds of music...but that does not diminish the quality of this crazy band. Offering a soundscape which cannot be readily analized, Man Man bring something which will keep the mesmerized listener cloistered to his seat in stunned amazement. In fact, the more open-minded music listener will find Man Man very entertaining indeed. As for my final appreciation...do you need ask?...of course this one goes into the "Best Albums Of 2008" lists! In a category of its own, perhaps (because the music is closer to Pop than anything...and for once the word "Pop" does nót leave a sour taste in my mouth...because it's clear that the band does nót make music for a broader, more easily entertained public). Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll quickly finish this and then pick up my things and bike into town to see if I can still get this wacky outfit's previous outings at the record store!

98/100

Tony.