1. The Unknown Keys
2. Savior/Siren
4. Crown
5. The Boat of a Million Years
6. Arise
“The Kindling” is a 6 song cycle that’s epic in scope but casual in execution; the songs sound as if built from monumental foundations, yet are played with such languid ease that one feels the rise and fall of the ocean with every turn of phrase and stroke of the guitar. The music that the primary trio of Bentley Anderson, Taylor Davis, and Brady Sansone compose is steeped in the post-rock sounds of 90’s guitar bands like Come or modern day Sonic Youth acolytes Tall Firs, with their wandering guitar passages that tunnel and spiral rather than pummel and rock. The grayscale hues that the band favor in tandem with the spacious sound of the music conjures images of winter skies over tumultuous seas and panoramas of breathtaking landscapes. There is an austere calmness in the voice that can be warm and smokey or cold and visceral, and though it is teeming with emotion it never strays into melodrama. In the classical sense the songs that make up “The Kindling” are sections to a greater whole, as the album feels and moves like a single piece.
“Good songs with motion and melancholy in focus...” -Doug Mosurock (Dusted Magazine/ Still Single) READ MORE>>
“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 READ MORE>>
"It's not easy to sound this simultaneously weathered and youthful; how the hell do Man Benu do it? The Kindling EP (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... "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..." -Grant Purdum (SINGAL TO NOISE - Issue #49)
CATALOG: AHE-10
UPC: 881626932629
LP edition of 300
RELEASE DATE:
August 24, 2010
US DISTRIBUTION:
Matador Direct, Carrot Top
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MAN BENU
The Kindling
MAN BENU “The Kindling” LP cover
Design by Shadrach Lindo & Bentley Anderson
MAN BENU
NYC 2010
Photo by Alfra Martini
Tracks:
