MANONMARS - Manonmars (Young Echo Records)

Cover photography - Paulina Korobkiewicz

MANONMARS - Manonmars (Young Echo Records) With credits on the ‘Young Echo’ album and Kahn & Neek’s Fabric mix to his name, Manonmars reveals himself as a dark, liminal interpreter of the Bristolian psyche, delivering lyrics with a classic swagger that nods to current rap styles but with a more detached, personalised and poetic style of observation. The duo of Young Echo’s Amos Childs (Jabu) and Sam Barrett (Neek) a.k.a O$VMV$M capably and subtly supply the instrumental backdrops, a set of sparse, rugged beats and atmospheres that work like stage ornamentation to ‘Mars bars, which ranging from drowsy rants to urgent ambient expressions and bedroom isolationism. If we’re going o draw comparisons, it’s somewhere between a Brexit-era take on Lil B’s ‘Rain In England’, and the abstract flux of Coby Sey, but really Manonmars is, as his name suggests, well out on his own planet... Recommended!