[Hello? Repeat]

As one of Hello? Repeat’s co-managers and frequent contributors, Marcus Manowski, (aka Daze Maxim) has shaped the label’s distinctive aesthetic since the beginning. As Heartz4, Manowksi kick-started Hello? Repeat on a gloomy note — some may remember “Intimacy Girl,” a classic example of the bad dream vibe that was in vogue in 2006. Since then, Manowski has eased out of the gloom and helped shape the trippy house sound now characterizing much of Hello? Repeat’s catalog. Daze Maxim’s most recent effort, “One Million Shakers EP,” finds Manowski completely withdrawn from the shadows and fully focused on percussion and aural texture. Bereft of melody and emphasizing timbre, it’s his driest and most avant-garde release yet.

The EP opens with “Tube People,” a clacking thirteen-minute ordeal and the moodiest cut. The first few licks of tribal drumming don’t sound terribly original, but the loops grow increasingly more interesting as the track progresses. Its vivid array of sweeps, brushes and ticks dominate the spectrum as a nervous half-melody drifts in and out, calling to mind Matmos with a house beat. “Jat,” on the other hand, is entirely percussive, lacking any sort of melody at all. The sounds are less unusual, consisting mostly of conventional acoustic drums, but the overall effect is lively and full of impact. “Mudhole” is the funkiest of the three, with a slightly more syncopated beat and warbling synth stabs. It’s on the short side (five minutes) and probably the most standard track on here, but after such stone-faced exercises in percussive timbre it’s considerably more fun and immediately engaging. “One Million Shakers” is a serious and artistic EP, but its hard to say whether or not this is a good thing. For me, there is something disappointing about the absence of the spooky house clichés Manowski has commanded so smartly in the past (e.g. the unsettling vocal samples giving “The Trickster” and “Intimacy Girl” so much character.) But while these tracks are not show-stoppers on their own, they would certainly lend beautiful texture to a DJ set and reveal their full range of colors through a pair of expensive headphones.