Life in Motion. That’s a term that comes to mind when Indie Rock is involved in life. From the hustle and bustle of the music that is often chaotic, melancholic, or airy, indie rock proves to be a genre of never ending wonder and fun.
Mansell is a 3 piece Indie Rock/Alternative outfit from Atlanta, GA that bring the hustle and bustle of their native city to the world as the landscapes painted often share relationship woes and personal views to life.
Mantra is the 2016 effort from Mansell that provides 1 intro and 7 tracks that provide full-length insight into these young musicians. The intro entitled Walking on Bank Street is a simple intro that features the sounds of everyday life. Does that apply to this album? that’s up to you!
Ghost is our true musical introduction to Mansell as we get a feel of pop, electro, and rootsy Indie Rock that vibe and send a call to bands such as Interpol with the somber and slow pacing but overall a very pop sound that could make it into any coffee shop playlist rotation.
Age is very somber lyrical as the lyrics send out a vibe of growing to maturity in the current landscape we call life. From it’s amazing instrumentation and heavy emphasis on the bass line, Age is a song that stands out on this release as a unique and eye catcher in it’s own quality.
Cloudland feeds off the ending of Age as it keeps a looping bass in check while an acoustic guitar creates it’s own portrait to an oceanic sound in the way back of the arrangement. Truly a interesting transition to the full arrangement known as A Love Immodest.
A Love Immodest is a song about the life of someone in a relationship who finds themselves thinking of a refreshing time without a significant other. Whether that interprets as a bad relationship or mid life crisis is up to you.
Talking more on A Love Immodest, it’s musical arrangement captivated me as the drums took command and allowed the drums to play in the chain of command while everything else fell back to a more lower volume turn.
Going back to lyrically, this track focuses heavily on the refreshing aspect of a life a bit more free but also that the person you’re with is the air you breathe so it’s kind of like recalling old times but remembering what you have now is pretty amazing. But that is just my take on this production.
Character Portrait is a Acoustically founded track as the vocals of all band members are in unison speaking on a life once felt. Maybe a perspective piece on how we grow over time? Again that’s up to the listener at this point. Haunting in ambiance and a overall worthy mention.
A Note To Myself brings to mind early vibes of The Killers and The Strokes as the instruments really get arranged in the fashion of a pop hit but also driving more towards a feel of the work of John Frusciante fame. Very interesting and one of the more technical tracks to be anticipated from Mansell.
King Pleasure, this track has amazing production and mind blowing stereo effects as a jazz piano organ effect makes a swoop around my system and earbuds. Heavy bass emphasis and simple guitar structure leave the drums to cause a booming texture to create quite the mix of relaxing atmospheric jam. Truly another stand out track.
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Life In Motion. We come back to this term as a way to put ourselves in the mind of walking down a metropolitan street full of life and walking through Echoey corridors where life is it’s loudest. With those earbuds in, your music turned up, you really feel the Vibrance of life and the art in it.
Mantra by Mansell is a ambitious effort and a call of to bands of old who in the early 2000s truly coined this style of music from their predecessors.
So getting this album you get great production, lyrical melodies that point to growing as a human and recalling the old while appreciating the new you. Instrumentation is flawless in technique and a promising sign of Mansell’s potential so early in their career.
This is a band truly trying to find their place in music and as human beings. I think they do well and it’s worthy of a Contrast CTRL Review mention!
For more information on Mansell, please visit the following links:
Written by James West 10-4-2016
