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Mambo Mantis
Mambo Mantis: Everybody Knows Something
by Ernest Barteldes
Do not let the word mambo" in this band's name fool you. There is nothing of the famed Cuban genre on this album, recorded live at the Bowery Poetry Club and ABC No Rio. The group's sound is experimental as it gets--with surprising neurotic sounds and hard rock influences--as heard on the introduction to According to Type and Minute Openings. On the opening track, Royal Mambo, reedman Blaise Siwula brings a frontal attack that sounds as if ...
read moreMambo Mantis: The Ecstasy of Perfect Recognition
by Terrell Kent Holmes
From the potent opening cut of The Ecstasy of Perfect Recognition, it's clear that Mambo Mantis stands outside of any conventional definition. Life On Mars, with its blistering, pardon, extreme guitar by Will Redmond blazing above drummer Ray Sage's thrashing, brings to mind the intense duet of John Coltrane and Rashied Ali on Interstellar Space (which actually featured a cut entitled Mars ).The songs collected here are short, quick, effective punches to the gut. Sox 1 is a ...
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