- Transmissions From A Drainpipe is the postscript to Peder Mannerfelt's Hinge Finger EP, Black Holes, Or How We Lost Solidarity, and his Controlling Body album, a record he sought to make his most "audience pleasing" to date, as he told The Wire. It submits to the experimental angles and compositional hallmarks of those releases. The low-frequency stabs and skating choral tones of "Blog Kept A Growing" orbit a cyborg vocal sample like the one Mannerfelt used on "Limits To Growth." In revisiting the rave-inspired themes of Black Holes and the more inviting textures of Controlling Body, Transmissions From A Drainpipe sound less austere and, in its impulsive moments, more fun than Mannerfelt's other self-released EPs.
Replicating the harsh rave sound of "Clear Eyes, Full Heart" on "Public Images," Mannerfelt presses bendy sheets of bass onto an MC's rallying cry, a runny goo of accelerated syllables. ("Joan @ The Rave"'s gaseous chords seem to be an abstract foil for "Public Images"'s madness.) There's a faint dance floor pulse to "Request Line," too, especially when the track's bass synth thickens and rises over Mannerfelt's boiling oscillations. The difference between Transmissions From A Drainpipe and the material it riffs on is mostly contextual. On Black Holes and Controlling Body, Mannerfelt loaded skeletal ideas with conceptual weight. There's a looser sense of purpose here, but the head-spinning effect of Mannerfelt's music remains the same.
TracklistA1 Joan @ Rave
A2 Public Images
B1 Request Line
B2 Blog Kept A Growing