MANATEE COMMUNESimultaneity

Seattle's own Manatee Commune (aka Grant Eadie) makes his long-awaited return toBastard Jazz with his fourth album, 'Simultaneity'. Lush and vibrant production isfamiliar to his previous works, though Eadie has significantly matured in the activation ofspace and character. A step away from standard songwriting, and a total disassociationfrom lyrics at all, has made this record closer to the ambient genre than anythingManatee Commune has released, all the while keeping one solid foot in the realm ofdance music.'Simultaneity', as a whole, is an exploration of the collision between texture and time.Captured recordings reminiscent of wind in wheatgrass, soft rain showers in the openplains, and cascading beach sand wash over the mix, splashing into warm drones andascending melodies that cleanly syncopate against a steady rhythm. Though decidedlyelectronic at times, a raw human element is ever-present in the form of a vocal motif:just tiny moments of a loving voice lost in a sea of reverberation.The album is a noticeably positive evolution from previous works. All nine tracks depicta calmness and subtlety in musicianship, relying primarily on tenuous snippets of liveinstrumentation and synthesis that hypnotically coil and coalesce with one another.'Love Tone', the opening track, features Eadie's partner, a small voice memo clippedand expanded into an ethereal vocal melody. A crisp felt piano delivers a complexarpeggiation in 'Mosaic', a warm sonic bath scape reminiscent of Olafur Arnalds orKiasmos. Simple, undemanding bass lines drive tracks 'Path' and 'Faulted', though theirsimplicity is contrasted with a variety of patterns that combine to create unique auditoryshapes, both building and landing in satisfying climactic movement. The albumculminates in the final track, 'Touch Theme', where a block of sound in the form of abroad, open synthetic chord warms the ears, eventually twisting and shifting to rhythmicchunks that shove against a familiar house rhythm.