News MANS

: MANS
Based: London
Listen: ‘Strict Face’
Similar To: Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Metronomy

We thought DIY had died when B&Q started using Peter Bjorn & John to sell sofas. Turns out this approach is far from dead. It’d just left the sheds of over-enthusiastic suburban types and wound up trapped in grotty London studios with longhaired weirdos like Max Luthy.

Luthy, whose previous foray into the world of ‘do it yourself’ was founding the label TEETH –“a straight-to-DVD Van Wilder sequel streamed by the diabetic stepchildren of Timothy Leary’s counterculture”- doesn’t really do normal. Which is probably why he decided to team up with Iranian entrepreneur Muz Azar and form MANS.

Surprisingly this has turned out to be one of the more lucid of Luthy’s schemes. Squealing with sounds that should have died in the 70’s, debut single ‘Strict Face’ is a squirming blast of sordid falsetto, breathless backing vocals and creeping bass lines that strikes a surprisingly comfortable chord. In a nicely circular maneuver they’ll be releasing this debut on Luthy’s old label, now run by James and Joel from Mafia Lights, who Luthy discovered back in 2010. They’ve got a debut LP recorded and ready to release so, with any luck, we should be hearing a whole lot more from them in the very near future.

Pre-order the ‘Strict Face’ 7’ and stream ‘Mellow Magic Marker’ below: