MANATEE
EASY
Release Date: 23rd Aug, 1999Cat No: DISCO9908
Format: CDS
BLISTERING BARNACLES IT’S MANATEE
According to legend, in times long past, possibly even before Paul Weller used to be quite good, manatees, otherwise known as sea cows, were often mistaken by drunken sailors as mermaids. Funny how something so intrinsically ugly can be viewed as beautiful isn't it?
The same is true of Nottingham's Manatee. On the face of it, it doesn't look that attractive - five blokes with a stack of amps and synths that look like they're off to the knackers yard. But then it hits you: that gorgeous swirling cacophany, a tiny perfect moment of pop consumed by a maelstrom of guitar fuzz and pulsing sequencers.
That's the Manatee live experience. They'll not get that down on CD we mused cynically, and a little tearfully. But they bloody well did. It's called "Easy". Ha! see how they toy with our limited expectations of them. Easy peezy lemon squeezy. NME compared it to Can, Joy Division and Spacemen 3, and praise doesn't get much higher. So come drown with us in this boiling rock pool. And watch out for those guitars - they'll take the skin off your knees as sure as any barnacle.
Expect to see them playing a bit here, a bit there and a bit everywhere.