Manatee Commune - Simultaneity (Black Vinyl)

Seattle's own Manatee Commune (aka Grant Eadie) makes his long-awaited return to Bastard Jazz with his fourth album, 'Simultaneity'. Lush and vibrant production is familiar to his previous works, though Eadie has significantly matured in the activation of space and character. A step away from standard songwriting, and a total disassociation from lyrics at all, has made this record closer to the ambient genre than anything Manatee Commune has released, all the while keeping one solid foot in the realm of dance music. 'Simultaneity', as a whole, is an exploration of the collision between texture and time. Captured recordings reminiscent of wind in wheatgrass, soft rain showers in the open plains, and cascading beach sand wash over the mix, splashing into warm drones and ascending melodies that cleanly syncopate against a steady rhythm. Though decidedly electronic at times, a raw human element is ever-present in the form of a vocal motif: just tiny moments of a loving voice lost in a sea of reverberation.