Mantissa

Editorial Reviews
About the Artist
Mantissa is Brian McGrath and Nathan Jones. Sometimes their friends come and help them out -- playing drums or bass, mostly. Brian does the singing and the guitar playing. Nathan sits behind the computer screens, trying to force samples and synthesis into sounding, somehow, different: sounds that belie their origins.

Brian and Nathan met in a graduate-seminar on Deleuze or Wordsworth -- they forget. Brian stayed behind in the Ivory Tower, Nathan went looking for money as a Creative Director. But this is all beside the point.

The point is:

Growing up, Brian listened to a lot of emo and punk-rock. And also, the blues. So Brian is into the singing, the narrative fragments, the cyclical thump-thump of the foot against the hardwood, keeping time with the guitar.

In high-school, Nathan liked Peter Brotzmann and Merzbow. Sounds over music, noise over melody -- but he too has grown up.

Drunk, at a party, here is how they would describe their 'sound' to a cute girl: "Rooted equally in the glory-days of mid-90s emotional-indie rock and the glitchy exuberance of post-millennial dance music, Mantissa works somewhere in the tension between."

Actually, they would never say this.

Rather, "Like that guy from Crooked Fingers singing over To Rococo Rot." Or, "I dunno. I guess we sound like a combination of The Notwist and Red House Painters." Or even, "Joan of Arc, if they killed Tim Kinsella and came to terms with their cleverness"

Anyhow -- you get the idea. Maybe the great thing about Mantissa is that they don't try to sound like anyone else. Nathan says, "I lack the talent to imitate even myself." Brian nods, "Yeah -- I can't even hear what we are playing anyway. When I go back to listen to the album, I am pretty impressed."

In the background, the CD player hums and clicks, switches between Avril Lavigne and Richard Buckner, This Heat and Jimmy Eat World.

Outside, another endless summer afternoon falls apart -- the night slips in.

Album Description
Mantissa is two people. Rooted equally in the glory-days of mid-90s emotional indie rock and the glitchy exuberance of post-millennial dance music, Mantissa works somewhere in the tension between.

Tracks:

Extro
Mary, Mary
Land of the Living
Staying Clean?
Sanctify
Mystery Line
Station
Next State of Mind
Dream Alone
Seed
Ruby's Mind
Round the World

Customer Reviews:

Australian band who were trying to fill a lot of potential.......2006-03-15

Way back in the late 80's/early 90's there was an Australian band called Killing Time. After dramas with the fact that somebody else already had the name they called themselves Mantissa. After an 4 track EP entitled Rubys Mind big things were expected of this mob. They dropped the ball somewhat with their next EP - The Mandelbrat Set (spelling?).

Then they gave us this. The vocals by a dude called Adam are quite alright - and he was soundly tipped to be a focal point for the female fans. Nina, their bassist, really held up the bottom end of the sound and it's interesting that an Australian band should be using such prominent use of bass even before it became compulsory to do so during the grunge years.

What lets this particular release down is the lack of drive. Whether the band were gunshy or were hoping to make the charts and didn't want to be too heavy I just don't know. Perhaps it was having put out a couple of EP's and just not having the material.

I can't really discuss specific tracks here - I just can't separate the tracks in my mind enough to do so. One thing is for sure, the band tried hard and long and put out more albums but they never recovered their upwards momentum after this release left the local punters with cold feet.

Average customer rating:

Junkmedia.org Review - Modern baroque pop
good stuff

Mantissa

ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Pop | Styles | Music

General | Alternative Rock | Indie Music | Stores | Music

General | Pop | Indie Music | Stores | Music
ASIN: B00008I7H8
Release Date: 2003-02-25

Tracks:

Building a Working Intro
Airport
Modesto
HS Dance
Waterfalls
Lorelai
Boy From Oregon
Nosedive
Waited Too Long
Chasing 8s

Album Description

Mantissa is two people. Rooted equally in the glory-days of mid-90s emotional indie rock and the glitchy exuberance of post-millennial dance music, Mantissa works somewhere in the tension between.

Customer Reviews:

Junkmedia.org Review - Modern baroque pop.......2003-04-07

The paralyzing melancholy of Brian McGrath's songwriting first grabbed me in 1994 when I received a tape in the mail with six tracks by an upstart Chicago trio called Wendyfix. McGrath was one of the act's songwriters, and shared those duties with a classy fellow who gained some renown fronting the criminally overlooked and now defunct Haywood. The mixtape is mine and you can't have it, but there is a Wendyfix seven-inch featuring McGrath's "Silence" on the B-side that's well worth tracking down. Particularly if, like me, you are smitten by Building A Working Model.

Mantissa, a partnership of McGrath and laptopper Nathan Jones that is abetted by a bevy of friends, bills itself as lying stylistically between the Notwist and Red House Painters, but that doesn't really cover it. What Mantissa delivers is a mature take on mid '90s indie pop. All the hooks and understated vocals from McGrath's earlier work remain, but they are dolled up with sophisticated compositions and imaginative production. Mantissa's arsenal includes complementary laptop beats and live drumming, as well as guitars, bass, a fleet of machines that go ping and some strings. The product is a masterful set of modern baroque pop: the subtleties are subtle, the delivery is genuine and the writing is smart.

The record gets down to business with an obvious single, "Airport," which shuffles in with a laptop beat and slyly inserts a crushing lyric ("I am convinced that come the end of this you will be better off with him") into a bouncy chorus. Following that is a horde of solid numbers that don't betray their charms as quickly. "HS Dance," another highlight, offers a tuneful play-by-play of an awkward night at the school social. The plodding verse in "Boy From Oregon" touts odd oboe squelches and vibrato bells over strident acoustic guitar strumming; the song opens with the smile-inducing line "this is where the DJ scratches... scratch, scratch." "Nosedive" strikes paydirt with its portrayal of a relationship in disconnect ("You say 'why cant you imagine something happy?' but I say 'the automatic pilot is laughing'"). The live drums on this number, though minimal, really pop from under the vocal and guitar in the chorus.

Building A Working Model, as the name suggests, is not all hits. The final two tracks, particularly "Chasing 8s," stumble with overly repetitive lyrics. Even so, if this is the working model, Mantissa could do a hell of a lot worse. This record is shaping up to be one of my favorites of 2003.

Jay Breitling
Junkmedia.org Review

good stuff.......2003-03-24