By Ranjini Achuthan
“I love my dancing, is the phrase that best describes Tongue & Cheek”, reveals the Bangalore based vocalist/music producer Mathew as he explains the philosophy of his live electronic act Mannequin Disorder’s debut EP.
“It’s the song that sets the tone for rest of the EP. Tongue & Cheek is about celebrating life even in the lowest lows and the highest highs. Dancing even in pain, enjoying, having fun and basically a reminder to live life to the fullest. It’s an ode to some of my experiences of learning a new culture, language, humane connections, duality and self-realization. In short, the EP is a subtle nod to the idiom ‘tongue in cheek’ that loosely translates to not taking life too seriously.”
Sonically, even though, the songs are all synthesizer heavy and of the nu disco dance music genre, the duo stays true to their old school, rock ‘n roll influences with an organic songwriting process rooted in song compositions sans any major use of samples, plug-in powered guitars handled by Mathew’s brother and partner in crime Louis Moni along with groovy basslines and beats.
Funk, pop, disco vibes with psychedelic, dreamy interludes, vocal plays with robotic, reverberated effects and the overall light hearted fun nature of the lyrics makes this 4-track-EP a dancefloor-must-play. The highlight of the EP has to be the track named after its super easy, addictive hook line ‘Para Dos’ that has the entire lyrics in Espanol written by Mathew himself. He confesses that he employed all the Espanol he has ever learned during his trip to Mexico, for this song! The EP has been mixed and mastered by Wavescraft Studio, Pune and the eye-catching artwork has been done by Bhama Narayanan.
Tongue & Cheek premiered through Rolling Stone India’s official social media handles in mid-November and also found a place in the premiere online magazine’s Spotify playlist. The duo also, surprisingly, managed to organize a launch gig, in spite of the lockdown, for which, an after-movie has also been released by the band.
All set and geared up to get back on stage after what seems like eternity, thanks to the pandemic that has tested the resilience of artists around the globe, Mathew and Louis feels that this is a new phase, a new chapter in their life; a post pandemic adventure chartering new territories in terms of the genre of music and the whole outlook towards songwriting.
Mathew and Louis have been known names in the indie scene with their alt rock ‘n roll band White Mug for almost a decade. Says Mathew, “Somewhere down the line, in 2018 to be precise, I took a different route to experiment and explore electronic music and DJ-ing. We kept jamming and performing a lot of underground gigs, anonymously, after which, I took a break to travel the world. It was go off the grid for almost a year following which, in 2020, we decided it was time to start putting out all the new music under our new identity Mannequin Disorder. We have a bank of songs ready and Tongue & Cheek is the beginning of all that’s to come.”
“Live performance are always special because we take care to provide not just music but a wholesome audio visual experience to our audience with our ensemble cast of flow artists, Smriti Singh and Tushal Kamaraj who perform LED Poi, Fire dance, hula-hooping and more. They lend a crazy dynamic to our songs. They have been with us right from the start and so is well versed with all the tracks. Moreover, the first music video of the EP for “I Love Dancing” is all set to premier next week on VH1 and it features Smriti and Tushal. We are super psyched about that one”, adds Louis.
The duo has their hands full right now with a string of local gigs lined up this month, promotional activities and plans to keep putting out singles and music videos. The goal is to be on the road once again touring the world with an intention to make a global presence in 2021 with their experiments in music.
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