by Kris Handel (@khandel84)
Over the past 15 years, give or take, Devin McKnight has been building his musical path in bands like Grass Is Green, Speedy Ortiz, Philadelphia Collins, and his own three “solo” releases as Maneka, building quite an impressive resume. McKnight’s releases as Maneka have been increasingly varied as he’s melded jazz (check the Wes Montgomery smoothness in “Throwing Ax”) hip-hop, goth tinged post-punk, searing guitar, and maelstroms of distortion into his songs, sometimes all at once. McKnight has been probing different ways of manipulating sounds to create a very unique adventure in musical expression and his fourth Maneka release Bathes and Listens keeps pushing against the made up boundaries and limitations of “genre.” McKnight and associates relish the chance to throw a monkey wrench into preconceived notions of what mixes with each other and end up coming up with music that probes and creates inventive worlds for the listener to explore.
“Shallowing” opens the record with McKnight’s deep crooning vocals over intricate guitar lines that eventually explode into a heavy shoegaze inspired cloud. nodding to the punkier parts of a band like Ovlov. Maneka shifts and swerves throughout these muscular five minutes, guitars throwing varying shades of techniques as melodic keyboard lines drift in and out over McKnight’s vocals shifting between that deep croon and falsetto colorings. “The Cry that Came” starts out hypnotically as McKnight’s voice floats over slow guitar chording and thudding bass drum of Alex Farrar before knotty guitar breaks give way to squealing feedback. Here, Maneka play with various effects and staggering musical switches that are handled with technical nous and a massive helping of inimitable style and cool.
“Sad Bot” is a track that switches between lumbering sludge and a subtle ambient fuzz, pierced with prog-ish synth squiggles and glacial guitar lines that slide and slip throughout. McKnight’s guitar has subtle psych and jazz tinges as his vocals groan and creak out a tale of depressive longing and attachment issues. “Yung Yeller” is a rolling bit of funky post-punk workout that wobbles and surges at moments, McKnight’s guitar spitting out sliding licks with arpeggiated notes ringing in the background. There is quite a groove that gets working out funkily throughout as the melody burrows its way into the listener’s eardrums before McKnight’s launches off with an explosive lead into spacier territories in admirable fashion.
Bathes and Listens shows off McKnight stretching his musical world with great technique and commendable invention that throws all sorts of different dynamics at his audience. Maneka has a knack for melding disparate musical ideas into a fully coherent mélange of sounds that are new and exciting, yet never stray too far from the project’s foundations. McKnight is a bit of a musical polymath but everything he manages to throw at the listener connects and creates a compelling and oddly welcoming musical universe. Each Maneka release shows another layer of McKnight’s talents that continue to unravel and reveal new joys. Bathes and Listens deserves some serious attention.