An Album Drop from Fake Mannequin
- R.A.G.
- 3 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Fake Mannequin is a project mostly known for its trip-hop style of sound, mostly drawing from classic, filmic-feeling artists most popular in the very early 2000s, but the cool thing about records like this is that it doesn't just sit in one area. It doesn't stick to one specific genre. I wouldn't consider this album to be just a trip-hop release.
The record takes its time to bend and shape certain elements of sound, helping it construct evocative aesthetics, and in doing so, the release has a way of swallowing you up.
The band is welcoming you to their world, and doing it with a certain kind of style and approach that comes with skins that you can peel back.
There's always some inherent emotion lingering just beneath the surface of most of the songs, and I think that's part of why you get pulled into the record the way you do.
Composed Reality is an album packed with brimming, gritty beats combined with Airy, drifting guitars, and a soiree of synthesizers and keys that add flavor all the time.
The very first track, "Colours" is exactly what I'm talking about. The synthesizer on this track is actually sort of colorful. It fits in with the beat and sits between those pockets amazingly, while the vocals give you that dreamy tone.
Others like "Danger" come across as danceable and even orchestral, with thick string sections and loads of sonic presence that you can't really turn away from.
Is a wonderfully delivered polish and sheen that some of these songs deliver, and as you go through them, you dig deeper into their world, and further away from your own.
As the album unfolds, more instrumentation comes in and out, laced throughout its course, giving it robustness.
Most of this is a borderline brilliant combination of hard-hitting and pretty impactful beats, with smoother overtones and vast underbellies.
It's quite an intense combination, and they do it very consistently.
Diving right into this album as a whole is a bit of a journey.
Listening to the record all the way through is the full experience. I think that's probably what it was meant for. They have previously been releasing several singles from the record like "Silverspoon", a track that focuses on decimated and distorted beats dripping with reverb, distanced, dark, and of course, almost invasively cinematic.
This was brought on by layers of strings, delicately performed vocals, and that underlying alternative aesthetic.
Amy Horn and Tor Laurens are the duo known as Fake Mannequin, and this album is an experiment in genre-bending.
Crossing over and blending that electronic tone with the theatrical, filmic, synth pop, and never losing grasp of their heavy-handed trip hop influence.
This is not a record you want to miss.
This is a record you want to set aside some time for.
The whole thing is 12 tracks and almost an hour in length. It serves as one of the best escapes that I've heard in quite some time.
So, set aside that time, listen to this record, and see how it affects you.
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