EP REVIEW: MANAPOOL – alexandra II

This silence is mine.”

In the past few years, breakcore has steadily grown in popularity, both as a genre and as an influencing effect on others. The likes of Nedaj and Trashii have been seen breaking through while artists such as fromjoy and iRis.EXE intertwine breakcore within their sound. It’s actually becoming increasingly difficult to avoid its magical effect in the modern scene.

Not mentioning MANAPOOL in all this would bee a disservice, the artist whom, since making the noteworthy seraph.am, has continually expanded and improved on their sound. A steady flow of releases including the single “Reverse Side of Beauty” and EP Mana No Uta//The Song of Mana has seen MANAPOOL hone her craft toward what is their best material yet on alexandra II.

Opener “want to be close” stirs alexandra II awake with its racing drum and bass beats. The vocal sampling that weaves itself throughout the track provides that immediately ethereal nature that gives breakcore its appeal. It’s the start of a magical soundscape MANAPOOL has built on this EP. “final distance” continues in a similar fashion, delivering a sound that drives the mind back to what was heard on the soundtrack to games such as WIPEOUT.

Track “whateveryouwant” pulls back the pace, contemplative in its sound. It’s still potent in its beats meaning it doesn’t allow the mind to drift off too far. The bouncing synths have an almost jungle induced element to them that gives track a vibrancy despite it’s melancholic nature. Offering up more gun-finger moments comes “heavens eternal fantasy“, blending in gospel-esque vocal samples to fully crank the aforementioned ethereality. The layering here is noticeably impressive, with the sampled vocals sitting neatly under the beats to give them that dream-like manner.

Where alexandra II truly begins to becomes magical is on “silence is mine”. It brings some gorgeous key work that through the track alongside symphonic strings. As the sampled vocals build into what gives the track its name, “this silence is mine“, it’s where alexandra II reaches it fever dream nature of nostalgia and dissociation that is carried into closer “zero +“. Seemingly acting as a thematic closer, “zero +” delivers on the front of sounds and samples of a bygone era. The Armored Core: For Answer mission lines, which even Bring Me The Horizon have dipped into recently, are layered with the drum and bass sound of yesteryear before the club scene fully took its hold upon it.

On alexandra II, MANAPOOL delivers on the magic of the genre. The only complaint that can be served is a desire for more. Touching succinctly on the roots of breakcore and drum and bass, while adding in those elements of nostalgia with the sound and sampling, it is difficult not to get immersed in what MANAPOOL has offered up and only yearn for more.

7.5/10

alexandra II is out February 14th via dreamstation.fm.