Meat Beat Manifesto names its newest album after the ugliest color. Opaque Couché is out on Flexidisc via Virtual Label in LP, CD, and digital formats on May 10, 2019.
Familiar breaks in unfamiliar places
[Press-Release] According to Brooklyn-based art blog Hyperallergic, opaque couché wins “the title of ‘World’s Ugliest Color.” So why did Meat Beat Manifesto (MBM) name its new album Opaque Couché? “I wanted to do a title based around a particular color, so I wanted to give opaque couché a chance since it’s not black or white,” explains MBM mastermind Jack Dangers.
Out on May 10, 2019 on Flexidisc via Virtual Label in LP, CD, and digital formats, it will also be released as a limited edition of 300 in conjunction with UK magazine Electronic Sound on especially-ugly colored vinyl (in opague couché!). This limited edition vinyl will also be available at meatbeatmanifesto.com.
Opaque Couché finds the seminal electronic band in a mischievous, rhythm-based mood, recalling some of the band’s groundbreaking early work while still stretching modern boundaries. “I wanted to go back to my roots and reinvent it,” says Dangers—and reinvent he does!
Kicking off with the ominous and resounding “Untroduction,” MBM explores rhythm and melody throughout its 16 tracks. Bending sounds, textures and voices, he juggles beats and notes with solid precision. With its syncopated percussive breakbeats amidst a deep bass groove and Danger’s caustic vocals interspersed throughout, “Pin Drop” (which premieres today via FLOOD Magazine) is anything but its namesake. In a related vein, “No Design” distills the breakbeats and changes it up, transforming it into a whole new experience. ““Pin Drop” and “No Design,” to my knowledge, are new sonic explorations,” Dangers says about the two tracks. “I am using familiar breakbeats but manipulating them into something new. Familiar breaks in unfamiliar places.”
The atmospheric “Hailing Frequencies Open” comes across as a paranoid nighttime stroll through a forest made of wind chimes and tubular bells. The mechanized percolations of “Call Sign” teeter and balance with prolonged textured notes, perfectly displaying MBM’s mastery of staccato and sustain. The mesmerizing and hypnotic “Ear Lips” captures Dangers at his most playful, manipulating his vocals into almost absurdist interplay. The vocal line is “a manipulation of my voice reciting lyrics which you should not be able to recognize. It’s not supposed to be recognizable text or syntax,” he explains. ““Ear Lips” is the story of my life.” The album ends where it began—in an ominous and expansive soundscape with “Wandering Soul,” bookending the breakbeats and masterful sound manipulations.
Opaque Couché track listing ::
1. Untroduction
2. Pin Drop
3. [Ear-Lips]
4. Agelast
5. Hailing Frequencies Open
6. Bolinas
7. Call Sign
8. Moving Pulse
9. No Design
10. C/2015 V2
11. CarrierFreq
12. Forced to Lie
13. Break Test
14. Present for Sally
15. Critical Soul Vibrations
16. Wandering Soul #11
Groundbreaking history, and what’s ahead
MBM’s consistent musical invention has led to all forms of electronic musical experimentation over its 31 year history, from jungle to techno to industrial to dubstep to jazz fusion. Future live dates will explore and re-examine MBM’s long string of influential futuristic classics including such groundbreaking tracks as “God O.D.,” “Drop,” “Helter Skelter,” “Radio Babylon,” “Edge of No Control,” to “It’s The Music.” The single, “Prime Audio Soup” (from the album Actual Sounds and Voices) was prominently featured in the sci-fi fantasy blockbuster The Matrix and on its platinum-selling soundtrack.
An acknowledged and celebrated innovator in the electronic music scene (his remix of Tower of Power’s “What Is Hip?” was nominated for a Grammy in 2006), Jack Dangers continues to stretch sonic boundaries and influence new generations of sound activists. As a premiere remixer, producer and sound designer, he has played a seminal role in defining tomorrows’ music today. Past production/remixing/collaboration include: Public Enemy, David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, The Orb, David Byrne, Depeche Mode, Terry Riley, Coil and Tower of Power.
Now with a new album and live shows to be announced (MBM wrapped up a headlining spot in the Summer of 2018 on the electronic and industrial festival Cold Waves), Meat Beat Manifesto isn’t keeping still. “I have a couple new projects—The JDs and working with Adi Newton from The AntiGroup/Clock DVA,” he says about his multiple current projects. “We will likely be doing some more live shows as well marking 32 years of MBM and 30 years of live shows in the US.”
Opaque Couché is available on Flexidisc via Virtual Label May 10, 2019. Photo credit of Jack Dangers and Ben Stokes by Nick Karp.
