Mangabros

The Mangabros (usually all lower case, but also Manga Bros, Manga Brothers) are something of an enigma: a literate band from a town without a decent bookshop; a group who use cut-up techniques to create their lyrics and music; and make their decisions through the roll of the dice. And that's even before we come to the songs themselves.

To pigeonhole them is unfair because they transcend mere labels, but here are gushes of a truly warped, sinuous fusion of beats n bass, (bad) acid and post-rock/electronica/sampladelia; the bones of Burroughs and Rhinehard ground up and snorted; these are songs, but not as we know them. Here we have twisted tales of inherently evil guitars, cognitive unborn foetuses with the ability to dream and the lonesome death of Johnny Weissmuller.

Since their emergence in Late 98, Mangabros have played a string of rare gigs and festivals around Europe, their approach to performance verging on theatre, playing in absolute darkness or by uv/firelight (twin burning Technics 1200s) or against the backdrop of their controversy-courting dice and pornography video installations.

Hailed by Bill Nelson as 'brave and uncompromising', the Mangabros have cropped up on various media sources, BBCi, Bizarre, etc., contributing to a Channel 4 documentary about the Dicelife and have had a BBC Radio Sheffield programme entirely dedicated to their generative work. On the eve of the New Millennium the dice dictated two things: the release of two companion albums (a physical CD release, slowburnblue; the other virtual, the downloadable deepfleshred) and, more significantly, the enforced disintegration of the band unit.

But - according to strict dice guidelines - the Mangabros have recently been resurrected and have entered a new phase of development: alongside their adventures in indeterminism is the Realsongs Project - a decidedly determined but no less warped approach to songwriting and structure.

Find related Mangabros detritus @ http://www.mangabros.com