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We go through life. We shed our skins. We become ourselves.”

This line from Patti Smith was going round and round Felix Manuel’s head as he gradually constructed "Under Tangled Silence", his first album in six years and a record of a literal creative rebirth. Felix originally began it in earnest in 2020 Covid lockdown, but a catastrophic hard-drive meltdown destroyed almost all his work and sent him close to psychic collapse himself. However, ultimately this pushed him to rebuild from scratch and in so doing to confront and reassess every part of his musical and psychological processes.

The result is utterly extraordinary. Felix was a child prodigy as an instrumentalist and his advanced musicality has always been prominent in his music, but here he has put himself front and centre as pianist, harpist and more. And this sense of exposure as a performer interweaves with an unflinching emotional openness too. Where sometimes electronic production as advanced as this can use intellect and techniques as shields from soul-baring, this is the sound of someone who can boldly convey plenty of emotion and feeling in his productions. 

But this doesn’t mean there’s a move away from the soundsystems and dancefloors where Felix made his name as a uniquely innovative DJ. Even just in the opening track “A Tune for Us”, minimalist piano ripples and jazz drumming flow into the breaks of vintage jungle – and as the structure of the LP unfolds, a deep ambient meditation like “Hold” can sit very naturally in between the futurist dancehall of “L’Ancienne” and the high-definition acid house mind movie of “Galaxy in Silence”. In fact, as with the hands-on musicianship, that gutsy big-speaker electronic impact is delivered with more certainty, more expertise, more personal flourishes than ever. And all of those elements are more integrated than ever too: the sound of a total musical personality emerging afresh is truly something to behold. An already remarkable talent has been refreshed, reborn and is making the music of his life.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Long serving UK vet makes a welcome return. A reinvention of sorts, it sees Felix tread intrepidly into new sonic pastures, all the while maintaining that strong sense of musicality and sound system prowess that's marked much of this prolific producer's back catalogue. A triumph for many reasons (not least for motivating himself back into gear following a disastrous hard drive meltdown!).

TRACK LISTING

A1. A Tune For Us
A2. Waxcap
A3. Unweaving
B1. L'Ancienne
B2. Hold
B3. Galaxy In Silence
B4. Reprise
C1. Three Foxes Chasing Each Other
C2. Let Me
D1. Out Of Dust
D2. Sycamore