The innovative Mangabros--Craig Manga and his merry band of creative collaborators--deliver a daring and emotional concept album in the deep and enlightening form of SHIVACROWBLACK.
The album's sounds are as raw and straight-from-the-heart as one might expect, but this time the bar has been raised much higher (or is it symbolically lower?), plunging one into feelings that are tender, desperate and explicitly strained. This is music of the Tom Waits vein, with shoveling notes and mean, rugged vocals sculpted for those who anticipate a monumental demise.
The most grazing-on-the-soul selections are "Night Snow"; "Musical Chairs"; and "Nada Song": a trio that comes early in the concept flow, establishing the required omens and allowing them to move thereafter with the logical highs and lows. These particular entries reference an urge to apologize for one's lot in life, but reach beyond the associated self-sorrow, searching for solutions that are impossible to find.
"The Blue Scrawl"; "Zapruderloop"; "Black Guitar"; and "Celebration of the Wounds" are irrepressible extensions of the established bleakness.
"Sequel Ate My Guitar"; "The Last Ghost Story"; "Hexamoten Yellow Scorpion"; and "Microchip Junky's Godawful Poptunes" summon punkish denial, creating a gritty impulse to fight and debase one's dismal situation, though all in vain. One lands in the mud all the same, and no matter how hard one splashes about, there's no way to come clean.
In thematic tune with the aforementioned clusters, there are interspersed selections that strive for a screen-gem romanticism of one's belittled state: a false assurance that everything is swell, that nothing (no matter the austerity) can crush one's precarious stride.
This emotional perspective characterizes the excellent "Weissmuller", which starts with the actor's inimitable, Tarzan yell, before clamping a Bondian strut. All the while, nervousness permeates the track, indicating that sooner or later one will fall from the starry-eyed vine.
"Malice in Kinderland"; "Dead Riff"; and "Bunny Girl" accompany this ambivalent sensation with a promising exit that concludes in further psychological constraint. As complements, "Fag Trucker"; "Drag Fucker"; "Tomboymilk"; and "Black Pop Caucasian Vampire Blues" are mortifying reminders of the dreaded duality at play. One may envision oneself the conquering hero, but that lofty label can never be attained.
Through Shivacrowblack may sound melancholic, it reminds us that we're not alone when it comes to bad times. For most of us, sour grapes are but a nibble away, but empathetic music is their perfect antidote. After all, it's nice to know that others care, and through Mangabros, one can partake of that care and then store it away for some fateful, dark day.
Your Shivacrowblack prescription is ready for pickup at ... https://mangabros.bandcamp.com/.
FYI: I also recommend Mangabros' radiating SLOWBURNBLUE, which stands as Shivacrowblack's atmospheric supplement, as well as a soundtrack to any worthy breakdown. It contains several Shivacrowblack tracks, matched with several, imaginative, bonus bridges: a searing compilation one's ears will eagerly digest. (I'm particularly fond of "The Actions of Electra Glide in Blue"; most Robert Blake fans will be, too.) Slowburnblue can be accessed from the same source as Shivacrowblack. Indeed, more medicinal music for when stuff gets rough...
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