Breakbeat nostaglia 

Meat Beat Manifesto put themselves on the map in the 90s crafting deranged and wickedly groovy breakbeat. Birthed from the electronic music explosion in the 90s, Meat Beat Manifesto used a dense array of samples, breakbeats and synths that launch listeners into a frenzied head spin. Their newest album Opaque Couche carries all of those main formal features over with added technological speed, glitches and refined sound.   

“Pin Drop” carries itself like a true old school IDM track, eerie samples and synths, dubby one-shots and inhumanly fast computerized fills ring out.  “Ear Lips” is a lot slower and more industrial.  The drums are crunchy and slow, and filtered mumbled vocal melodies create a surreal cloud of dense audio intrigue. The track could have been aided by more structure and variation but overall, it’s a very interesting take. “Agelast” is a surprise, slow-moving modular pluck ring out over a wide abyss of angelic pads and gentle four to the floor drums.  The track is calming but mysterious, cold yet inviting, soothing and hunting at the same time. The layering is magnificent and the intriguing blanket of synthetic sounds over such a minimal beat seems like a welcome departure for MBM.  

“Bolinas” mixes acoustic with synthetic, warm guitar chords chug along as choppy vocal samples and glitchy syncopated drums find a great pocket. “No Design” is a true breakbeat banger. Taking the duo back to their roots, the drums are insanely fast in the style of Venetian Snare or Aphex Twin. Other than the perfect breakbeats, the track is quite minimal, sub-bass hums in the background coexist with an interesting array of samples.  “Forced to Lie” feels like a boom bap beat MF Doom would spit on. Clunky trip-hop drums, vague jazz samples and the occasional vocal melody inject some life into the trippy beat.  The last track “Wandering Soul” is a short ambient piece. Contorted atmospheres and reverb-drenched vocals carry on into the audio blackness.  

Opaque Couche is a diverse and extensive sample of the many flavors of traditional IDM. While nothing here is groundbreaking to a fan of IDM, the detail and variation are impressive and each song carries a different weight and goal. The album is surprisingly cohesive both tonally and structurally and MBM has done an excellent job of injecting some life into the rarely visited 90s IDM soundscape.