Currently enjoying “Totally Together” by Meat Beat Manifesto

At a recent edition of Everyone’s a DJ, which wound up being one of my favourites because/despite a number of things that I’ll tell you about later, I got to have a great conversation with a skilled young DJ named Mr. Sperken. He was big fan of Z-Trip, quite rightly, so I asked if he’d heard the work he’d done with Meat Beat Manifesto.

He hadn’t, which meant I got to do what every DJ worth your time loves doing best: introducing a fellow music lover to something new and amazing. And there’s no band better suited to that purpose than Meat Beat Manifesto, because they’re a band that nobody knows about – except for all the electronic producers and DJs you love.

Throughout their lengthy and influential career, producer Jack Dangers and his rotating crew of musicians, programmers and vocalists – not to mention dancers, in their early days – have consistently charted their own terrain and left other acts to set up shop in their wake. Their new EP, Totally Together, was released in anticipation of a new album called Answers Come in Dreams that hit the shelves worldwide this week.

I bought the album in an elevator this morning – thanks again, iPhone! – but I haven’t yet had the chance to listen to it. However, I’ve been loving the new EP since I first heard the title track on a recent edition of the Brainwashed podcast. didn’t I tell you they were worth listening to?

Fans of MBM will recognize this EP as a continuation of the burbly retro beat the group first embraced in earnest on 2002′s RUOK? album. The trademark big breaks don’t make much of an appearance, taking a backseat to steady rhythms and ambience – though the closing track “TRS2″ jacks it up a notch.

You’ll also be treated to a video version of the title track, which lives up to the future-retro aesthetic that the group calls its own. Those of you who have seen MBM on tour in full multimedia force will be glad to know that the group hasn’t lost its taste for videos that expand on the source material, rather than simply marketing it.

I’m sure I’ll have more to say about the full album once I’ve heard it. In the meantime, good lord, do check out the EP.

Posted in Currently Enjoying