Peder Mannerfelt, the Swede with the unorthodox haircut, releases a new EP on Voam, the same label Blawan and Pariah release on. His début there, »Like We Never Existed« from 2020, sounded quite different, more in the direction of old-school techno. To avoid misunderstandings, Peder Mannerfelt has always flirted with a slightly different approach to electronic dance music, which he usually masters brilliantly thanks to his skills as a producer. But the opening track on »The Benefits of Living in a Hole«, ‘Pumping Plastic’, features synths that could hardly be more bizarre. Like a hilarious perversion of the vacuum cleaner sound, they reinterpret the seriousness of rave into borderline idiotic lift music. When, after a minute and a half, the track suddenly shifts between this world and the next, it’s reminiscent of Joey Beltram’s »Energy Flash«. On the other three tracks, Mannerfelt’s sensory overload returns to familiar territory: »Vankelmotor« pairs a rubbery, bouncing bass with metallic clang, »Eurotrashed« packs the post-party hangover as a bad premonition into its vocal lines and sets a caesura with a break of bass rolls. And on »Rattan Liquid Mainframe« Peder Mannerfelt throws so many crazy ideas into the ring and combines them with an incredibly plastic, angular sound design that it’s almost hard to concentrate on the music.
Brother Aten & Ze R.
Fragmented Dystopia
BRUK