ManBREAK - Barfly Club@The Falcon, London


ARE you ready?
Damn right. ManBREAK feel like a necessity, like a kickstart full of fires you could only ignore as an act of self-denial. They're proof that you can sound expansive without wanting to be Oasis, energetic without being tuneless dry wanks a la 3 Colours Red, and political (small "p") without the anachronistic self-satisfaction of Chumbawamba. Lead singer Swindelli used to be in Eighties agit-poppers 25th Of May, but ManBREAK are born out of the Nineties; they sound engaged, fuelled on chaos, willing to shape it to their own ends.
This is too small a stage for them. Swindelli and back-up vocalist Mr. Blonde need space to give themselves the runaround. "It's another rhyme of time/Assigned to the subconscious mind." "Round and Round" the latest single, is exeplary, insightful, a song all about doubt and, more importantly, about trying to make it cohere, to regain a latent passion from the damage. And they manage it too, forging rap, hip hop, bursting, bustling guitars, the most wilful of grooves as they rev up, ready themselves, anticipate and exhilarate.
Are you ready? Answer back in kind, in the affirmative.

Written by Johnathan Selzer; from Melody Maker, September 27, 1997

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