Erik Mowinckel – Drift EP (2017)

Giant Manilow

• Ambient pop 
• Shoegazetronica 
• Electronic music 
• Dreamwave 
• Alternative

Comment: by watching the cover print of this handful of tracks it gets very clear about the intention of this album. The goal of the artist is to conjure up the most lucid imaginations creatively possible. In a tight sense, it is ambient pop being influenced by shoegaze-y impulses. Indeed, it is all about sonic ebbs and tides, how sonic beauty used to appear and fade away. Indeed, the listener may hear sea waves running alongside the coastal line. At times it seems to be even way too transparent and effortless and because of that excluding possible counterpoint of it. So you can find no tension sources from it. Maybe it is good, it might be bad in some sense. The release is a part of the discography of Giant Manilow.

Heyhill Muangle – Way Out (2016)

Giant Manilow

• Chillwave 
• Alternative pop 
• Indietronica 
• Drone pop 
• Organcore 
• Glo-fi
• Indie 
• Hypnagogic pop 
• Post-psychedelic electronica 
• Post-pop

Comment: this is an ace issue drifting somewhere between sultry droning pop, spacey chillwave, gritty glitch pop and chill space pop. It would be named as post-Stereolab, and Beach House music where the psychedelic tendencies are eradicated for the sake of artsy facets, where the stoned state of minds are jettisoned for beatific moments, where the guitars are abandoned and replaced by reverberating organs and gleaming synthesisers. For sure it is a cut above in comparison to an average alternative/indie pop combo because the artist has taken risks on this 11-notch issue and ultimately accomplished the goal. Its premisses were not safe and could not take for granted. This striking issue is a part of the discography of the Birmingham (England)-based Giant Manilow.

Warmer Climbs – Warmer Climbs (2015)

Giant Manilow

• Shoegazetronica 
• Dream pop 
• Alternative dance 
• Epic 
• Psychedelic rock 
• Alternative rock 
• Space pop 
• Indie rock

Comment: I am back again to dig up the gems within the swathes of Birmingham, UK-based imprint Giant Manilow. This time there is a very special event spotted on. James Davis, and Thomas Whitfield aka Warmer Climbs` 4-track self-released issue could be a daydreaming experience while listening to it and staying outside at 25 degrees per Celsius. You can feel yourself a little bit exhausted by the sun shining at zenith while you are psyched by the sublimely exuberant guitar build-up and hovering vocals accompanied by epically programmed dance beats beneath it. At least it is one possibility to approach it. It is fun to experience of how the structure of songs used to distend and flicker thereby neglecting its borders in a delicate way. Stylistically, it is an exquisite drift between space pop, dream pop, electronic music and shoegaze. It is simultaneously powerful and blissful in its beauty and sensuality therefore following the genuine nature of shoegaze music. The world would be a little bit better place when such sort of music with a special, thrusting surge could be throning in the radio stations instead of bloody design pop.

Mountain Cloth – Instant Peasant/A Cantaloupe Garden (2015)

Giant Manilow

• Pub rock
• Alternative rock
• Indie rock 
• Noise rock
• DIY

Comment: Giant Manilow is a little imprint based in Birmingham, the UK that is a platform mostly for clamorous alternative pop/indie pop/DIY collectives. Of course, other indie music related genres can be found under the umbrella. Mountain Cloth is one of those groups being represented with a couple of pieces in the matter of the recent issue. It is very delightful to hear the band drifting between exquisite harmonious odds and ends and providing noisy rising in sound. At times a remarkable amount of pub rock roughness emits from within the whole. In a nutshell, the result is simple but salient. If I had a chance to lead the radio show I would play it in the afternoon. 

Bryn Bowen - The Legendary Journeys Vol.1 (2012)

Giant Manilow

Lastfm

9.3

/Anti-folk, Indie folk, Power pop, Dream pop, Alternative rock, Singer-songwriter, Folk indie, Experimental indie/ 

Comment: firstly, this 9-track album could be managed in a more long-running way to acquire even a more sympathetic outlook and appealing output. Indeed, the longest track (The Good Skirt) represented on this 9-track album will be switched off at 1.52. The compositions are recorded at home based on more or less rough guitar strums which are backed up with slight synth whiffs, "accidental" samples and sonic effects, however, emotionally resulting in opposite ways, expressing himself at times in a soothing, at times in a more urging, uplifting way. In conclusion, Bryn Bowen is a very skillful musician of expressing his thoughts through a wide scope of variable moods and soundscapes, through his urges and daydreams. By the way, he runs the Giant Manilow Records and in association with it he is a key member of the “New Rock” Collective which embraces the likes of Shocked Elevator Family, Gentle Friendly, The Reverends, Hell Brown Kids, Brothers Garcia, and Bleeding Judges (which by its whimsical aesthetical approach can freely be compared with the Elephant Six Collective across the Atlantic).

Greg Bird & Flamingo Flame - 2006 (2012)

Giant Manilow

Bandcamp

Lastfm

9.4

/Baroque pop, Dream pop, Experimental indie, Art pop, Electronic pop, Sunshine pop, Chamber pop, Post-punk/

Comment: undoubtedly Giant Manilow, the Birmingham-related artist is one of the greatest labels all around the world which used to house bands like The Shalfonts, Shocked Elevator Family, Yellobelly, The Reverends, Vampire Cop, The Home Stretch, Bryn Bowen, and Greg Bird & Flamingo Flame. Similarly to the other artists of the label an album of the last named collective (duo) sheds light upon different music styles veering away from baroque-esque thoughfulness and artful frills (therefore qetting quite close to Scott Walker, and David Sylvian, for instance) and murky post-punk/gothic rock/dark wave-alike dredging to insouciance kind of sunshine electronica and pronounced guitar chirps and spatial reverberations in emotions and yearning. In a word, it is enough right to suppose that these 6 tracks represented over there do have higher artistic quality than those first 6 pieces ranked up in the UK single chart top at the time.

Greg Bird & Flamingo Flame - Statuette/Fire & Horses (2011)

Giant Manilow
Lastfm

10.0

/Experimental indie, Dance rock, Alternative pop,Post-punk, Chillwave, Shoegazetronica, Indie dance, Glo-fi/

Comment: a thrilling 2-track miracle by Greg Bird & Flamingo Flame. In fact, I do have no words to convey the proper sense of it over to you. It is somehow related to shoegazing/and post-punk-ish propulsive aesthetics and on the other side showcasing blissed-out whiffs. What else? The vocal lines are highly soul-soaked in its dance-centered catchiness. Pure gold indeed!

Yellobelly - GM01 (2004)

Giant Manilow
Mediafire
Lastfm

8.6

/Instrumental rock, Post-rock, Experimental rock, Epic, Alternative rock/

Comment: The friend of mine told me once that all he used to need from pop music is just a good rhythm and melody. This 4-track single/EP by a Birmingham quartet (at the moment they are re-formed being known as Echo Lake and residing in London) was the first release of the Giant Manilow imprint and still being my favorite one under it so far. It is instrumental-only post-rock characterized by the epic ridges of guitar and repeated gears of this style, on the other side by the catchy harmonies and impetus of indie rock. Is there represented all of that do you need for yourself from pop music actually?

The Home Stretch - The Home Stretch (2010)

Giant Manilow

Lastfm

8.4

/Lo-fi, DIY, Alternative pop, Electro-indie, Experimental indie, Avant-garde, Psychedelic/

Comment: Ben Churchill-headed project and by his friends (Gentle Friendly; Noise Jordan) assisted record is a quite weird output consisting of prettily flowing AOR-pop and lo-fi/DIY-esque guitar strumming and at times primitive pop approach over to electro-pop drives and J-pop glimpses. Besides all of those described above, however, the album does have more obscure and vanguard-ish, into darkness sinking and elemental noise-infiltrated characteristics as well. A convincing result.

The Shalfonts - Sturt Logic (2009)

Giant Manilow

7.3

/Alternative pop/rock, Lad rock, DIY/

Comment: This was the first record by a sort of all-star band closely related to the Giant Manilow Records, though, most of the songs was written by Ralph Morton and Bryn Bowen. The soundscape of the album is filled in with rough guitar strummings, electrified feedbacks and drum blasts, sounding even a bit amateurish, however, ready to move on to reach new heights in the future ( for instance, at Mjuk Nation).

The Shalfonts - Mjuk Nation (2010)

Giant Manilow Records
Mediafire
Myspace
Lastfm

10/8

/Alternative pop, Leftfield, Hip-hop, Crossover, Experimental indie, Lo-fi, Electronic/