'Up in Flames' is a breath-taking and explosive 40 minute sophomore effort from Dan Snaith AKA Manitoba. A break away from 2001's gentle clickity click IDM debut 'Start Breaking My Heart,' this album is blissfully refreshing with more of a Spiritualized psychedelic approach with plenty of vocals and energetic upbeat beats parading on top the sunny melodies of acoustic guitar, glockenspiel, and happy organ drones.
The album beings with the hypnotic 'I've Lived on a Dirt Road all My Life' which starts with swells of washy vocals in the vain of Jason Spaceman backed with deeply intricate, clicky beats and lush key arrangements and even strummed guitar.
Instrumental 'Skunks' starts with organic guitars and keys and barrage of drums. Has kind of a 60's folk meshed with electronica. Chaotic sax, and blasting drums blast through the surface of this masterful orchestration.
'Hendrix with Ko' sounds like it could have come off Pet Sounds with Koushik Ghosh on the vox against the sparkling keys and relentless beats.
The single 'Jacknuggeted' driven by hand claps with surreal ambient keys and Beta Band-eque vocals complimenting the hooky New Order-ish guitar and bass lines. The track has a break that revisits Manitoba's signature sound with keys, clicks and bleeps then calmly winds down with shroomy organs.
'Bijoux' swirls of Stereolab and Brian Wilson harmonies, using orchestral sams O2 and layers of sounds, including music boxes, agro percussion and explosive key arrangements.
The playful 'Crayon' sounds reminiscent of Iceland's Múm but much more upbeat and friendly.
The high energy 'Every Times She Turns Round It's Her Birthday' closes the disc with some bizarre key arrangements and very climatic Spiritualized type vocals layers.
'Up in Flames' is quite and explosive event compared to his debut 'Start Breaking My Heart,' where Snaith takes us to new level of his Manitoba efforts. Cover art contains a plethera of rainbow colored photographs by Jason Evens. Dan Snaith produced the album himself with a high quality sound, which is heavily inspired by Phil Spector's layering process of producing.
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