New York house producer MANIK has always had a simple sound, sometimes at the price of efficacy. While previous releases revealed a producer with a flair for catchy, uncomplicated melodies that served the groove rather than distract from them, his tunes could be built uncomfortably basic — solid ideas slapped together with store-bought ingredients. MANIK’s debut for Poker Flat keeps the simplicity intact, but signals a shift in his production that predicts a decent year for the ever-busier producer.
The What Is Who EP has a dulled, waxy finish, and whether that’s the product of a deliberate aesthetic or simply lazy EQing and mixing is up for debate. The rudimentary palette, however, makes the tiny details stand out all the more, turning it from perfunctory deep-house-by-numbers into something more carefully personified. “Pure Liquid” personifies this, where offbeat snares brush up against the groove just slightly out of place, a millisecond of delay that makes for a world of difference; the track only veers further off the path with a stage-hogging theremin snaking through the mix. Fixating on a rather generic squelchy bass line, the title track paints similar strokes with an unpredictable percussion kit, phased chords spilling out of the track’s center. The EP’s highlight is, paradoxically, somewhat of a lowlight; starting out like a particularly uninspired workout, the even squelchier bass line of “Good 4 Me” grinds a rather predictable melody into the ground. But when our beleaguered hero lets slip a shimmering vocal sample into the mix — or more like a snippet of a song — which utterly transforms it from a lifeless tool into a sunny and decadent jam each time it ghosts through those bars. It’s amazing what those little details can do, and in this case they make What Is Who a more satisfying EP than many of MANIK’s previous releases.
Nice track!