Just seen the pre-order for this over at Sounds Of The Universe and looking forward to picking up the physical. Manuel Gonzales aka MGUN dropped not one but a handful of top plates in 2012, across Wild Oats, Don’t Be Afraid and The Trilogy Tapes. Way back in 2010 we had an even doper introduction to him however, when he appeared on the Laygo My Faygo plate teaming up with Kyle Hall; an absolutely storming leftfield house record that melted my brain at the time.
No idea why people still keep referring to Gonzales as “up-and-coming Detroit producer” to be honest, dude’s smashing floors with his own signature sound already, production wise and on every mix we’ve heard him do.
Returning to us on Benji Semtek’s Don’t Be Afraid label, MGUN is bringing some of his finest production to date. Not tied down by your 4/4 constructions, Gonzales is just doing what sounds good, creating some incredibly fresh records in the process.
Strictly house, this is still a plate of all-sorts, almost like he’s playing a game of how far he can push new ideas on to us. Take the opener ‘Hand Over Fifth‘, where the second layer of drums is pulled off time enough to make it interesting but kept with just enough restraint to make it functional, as the sounds of a keyboard dying (which reminds me of a simulated giraffe death) float erratically over the top. Genius.
This is then followed up with ‘Proxy‘, which is over seven-minutes of hi-hats and distorted drum journey that keeps flipping right at the end, without dropping tempo and killer keyboard bass. Very nice tune that I look forward to rinsing over the coming months.
I could keep going through and breaking it down track-by-track but all you really want to know about it is that there’s not a sub-par joint on there; six tracks and all heat. Thee good people at Don’t Be Afraid work hard to keep their plates at a decent price too; so just trust on this and pick it up asap, it’s going to be one of the best you get all year.
Wax should be dropping in to stores this week, a few youtube samples below alongside release.
via Don’t Be Afraid
Following 12″s on The Trilogy Tapes and Kyle Hall’s Wild Oats imprint, the original dark soldier MGUN returns to Don’t Be Afraid for a second outing with this six tracker. From start to finish you get the now familiar trademark MGUN sound all over this EP, from the spit and sawdust electro of Funnel Vision to the deadly 313 dystopia of Bean Chirp.