Vinyl LP: $13
Catalog #: AHE-10
Release date: 2010
Tracks:
1. The Unknown Keys
2. Savior/Siren
3. The Kindling
4. Crown
5. The Boat of a Million Years
6. Arise
Three-piece NY band led by the guitar wizardry and songwriting talent of Bentley Anderson, Man Benu is an evolving sound of harmony and dissonance centered interwoven guitar lines, lyrical song structures, and drone heavy tonality. Backed by drummer Taylor Davis and guitarist/lap steel player Brady Sansone, they began writing and performing their sprawling pastoral rock songs in late 2008. Referencing the epic sweep of guitar bands such as Come and Sonic Youth, and the pastoral folk arrangements of Fairport Convention, Man Benu’s debut album The Kindling explores a world of grey dawns and heavy sunsets.
LP comes with download card.
“Good songs with motion and melancholy in focus…” -Doug Mosurock (Dusted Magazine/STILL SINGLE)
“impressive in building a discordant tension not far from early Blonde Redhead territory – elegiac yet brooding, threatening” -SONIC MASALA
“And then it´s time for something new. Presenting Man Benu, an adventurous trio from Brooklyn operating somewhere in the no man´s land between Sonic Youth and Fairport Convention… Give these guys a try, well worth your time.” -FOR THE SAKE OF THE SONG
“It’s not easy to sound this simultaneously weathered and youthful; how the hell do Man Benu do it? The Kindling (All Hands Electric) is, above all, a branching-out of the classic Sonic Youth sound, mixed with a lil’ Ex Lion Tamer. You don’t get too many of the build-ups, explosions or guitar-drilling, but that clean guitar-with-the-edges-sanded-off feel, coupled with matching vocals, is here in spades. Think of “Rain on Tin” stripped of most of its louder moments (or, for that matter, Murray Street) and expanded downward, or sideways, rather than upward. Big-time drowsiness causes Bentley Anderson, Brady Sansone and Taylor Davis to have that codeine crawl about them, that lurch where you wonder how they survive in NYC with all the fracas. Wonderful drumming from a guy who probably played in a few math-y bands back in the day, then progressed to the point where he didn’t need to prove anything any more. Oh, and that lack of “build-ups” and “explosions”? Not exACTly true, folks; The Kindling blows up like a balloon, pumps like a piston and pops like a tart, the rhythms suddenly turning a bit vicious and the guitars fluttering, then flopping. Man Benu obviously have some influences to work through; don’t give up on them, though, as this will be an interesting band to watch, all three of its members blessed with distinct individual talents.” -Grant Purdum (SINGAL TO NOISE – Issue #49)
