Meat Beat Manifesto & DHS :: Man From Mantis EP (Love Love)

Explosive right from the start, Jack Dangers and Ben Stokes need no introduction. Their footprint in the breaks, bass, and baffling bleep techno/electro scene has inspired a whole generation of enthusiasts trying to catch up.

Fresh, vibrant, and infectious

Explosive right from the start, Jack Dangers and Ben Stokes need no introduction. Their footprint in the breaks, bass, and baffling bleep techno/electro scene has inspired a whole generation of enthusiasts trying to catch up, and now with their collaboration spanning over two decades, we’re not sure they ever will. Both artists provide shapeshifting electronics, robotic rhythms, vocodered slices, and their signature fractured drum (and bass) action is simply baffling. It’s a formula that remains fresh, vibrant, and infectious. And yet, with this collaboration, one can find unique sonic characteristics from both musicians in focus.

The interplay between both Jack and Ben is astounding on Man From Mantis—Jack always shatters beats and provides rugged low-end explosions while Ben displays his knack for pulsing, hard-hitting, and funky technoid slabs. Together, they can’t be stopped, and as “Pandemic” exudes Dimensional Holofonic Sound’s old-school acid-techno pulse—reference Seeing Is Believing (2020) if you haven’t already—it looks like his stamp is also firmed etched on “Automatic Mouth” with vocodered clips to round it out. “International Sound System” is quintessential MBM in the vein of “Pin Drop” or “No Design” (Opaque Couché, 2019) with scrambled drum-work and punching bass while “Aggressive Mantis Squad” sees Jack rip apart (or shall we say, recycle) recognizable (older) samples like “Ohh Noo!” and “…you sure got rhythm” with dense blips’n bleeps galore and rumbling low-end embarking on dub-laden grooves we experienced on Autoimmune (2008) and Answers Come In Dreams (2010).

We highly agree with the press release notes that, “these are lab-grown rhythm bombs, finely tuned off-kilter grooves, (and) razor sharp crucial beats ready for the future.” Do not miss this!

Man From Mantis is available on Love Love. [Bandcamp]