Shaded Monocle - Lit By Talons - CD (2011)

Labels: Minimal Resource Manipulation
Review by: Captain Fidanza

The first of two new releases from Minimal Resource Manipulation, the label responsible for the excellent “œSimple Pleasures” and many other unassuming electronic releases besides.


This is brilliant, there’s a real brooding menace present in each of the five songs with their repetitive piano loops and skittering percussion. Some of it sounds like mood music from the computer game “œDead Space” in which you have to wander about in an abandoned space station whilst bizarre alien monsters try to eat your face.


Quite apart from the computer game monsters, there are also elements of Sun Ra here, as the music takes on a distinctly other-worldly jazz-tinged feeling. There’s nobody talking about time travel or living on Saturn but if you’re a fan of Herman Blount (particularly the album “œLanquidity”) there’s plenty here to keep you interested.