Originally issued in 2013, ‘Mordendo‘ is the one and only release of Black Manual, a project born in 2012 after Jan St. Werner had heard the percussionists Valdir Jovenal, Juninho Quebradeira and Leo Leandro play at a Candomblé ceremony in Berlin Kreuzberg.
Alongside Andi Toma, with whom he made up the electro-pop duo Mouse On Mars, St. Werner assembled and mixed these “frigidly staged disorders, digital fragments, samples, broken melodies and the vibrant, tugging sub-bass caprices of the Brazilian voodoo rhythms“.
Three years later, Portals Editions – the imprint and collective formed by Marijn Degenaar (Circular Ruins), Yair Glotman (KETEV), Nicolas Lefort and Brandon Rosenbluth (Shaddah Tuum) – decided to revisit this unique slab of digital-rendered ritual music by getting Dirk Leyers of Africaine 808, James Ginzburg as Bleed Turquoise, in-house artist KETEV and Blackest Ever Black affiliate Cut Hands to contribute their own renditions of the original recordings.
Our pick, Cut Hands’ blood-thirsty take on the title-track, is a feverish cut of primitive techno, invoking spirits around a devouring bonfire as hard-hitting drums and heavy perc whams hammer a frantic archaic pulse. The perfect conjunction between a nasty Berlin rave and ancient ritual hoodoo. A proper restless hustle-and-bustle.
Mordendo Remixed is released via Portals Editions on 4th November, pre-order a copy from Bandcamp.
TRACKLIST
A1. Mordendo (Cut Hands Remix)
A2. Mordendo (Bleed Turquoise Remix)
B1. Mordendo (Format01 Remix)
B2. Mordendo (KETEV Remix)
Discover more about Portals Editions on Inverted Audio.