Introducing… Mano’s Daughter

Here at Bearded we aim to shed light on acts who don't necessarily have giant labels or muscley budgets waving banners behind them. This Introducing series will focus on artists who we think are great, regardless of how much hype surrounds them or where their origin story lays.

Bio
Name: Mano's Daughter
Location: London, UK
Genre: Electropop
Similar Artists: MS MR, Chairlift, Portishead
Contact: Facebook, Twitter
Events: Debut album released in May, available here

First established in 2011, Mano's Daughter have been sculpting their première record from the get-go. Along the way, influenced by Foals, Moloko and Little Dragon, the London trio have carved themselves a comfortable nook within the wider expanse of electropop – they feature hooks and beats poised for the dancefloor, but also a brooding neo-goth streak that incites introspection. Their sound is melodramatic, subtly sinister and painted with '90s dance. Their first LP, Mano's Daughter, showcases the scope of their talent, from frail icy-cool trance-ballads with a trip-hop twist, to full-blown synth-based slabs of exuberant mayhem.



The production from multi-instrumentalist Matthias Garrick beefs up the trio's sound, injecting their noises with robotic textures and viral earworms, forcing momentum through tracks like 'The Machine' or 'What's A Girl Supposed To Do'. The former being a bass-heavy cut with throbbing rhythms and the sultry-yet-reluctant pipes of vocalist Sarah Carter; it's got a mainstream-ready chorus, pumped full of adrenaline-fuelled hisses, rickety clicks and morose indie-house pads. The latter (no relation to the similarly titled Bat For Lashes 'What's A Girl To Do') houses shimmering synth riffs and subdued bouts of glamorous, celestial keys that stoke the flames of passion and conjure visions of cinematic stargazing. It sounds like falling in love in slow motion.
Carter has a voice fated for a kind of sci-fi cabaret – it's easy to imagine her coquettishly strutting around a strobe-lit stage to an audience of drunken androids and tentacled extra-terrestrials, hollering to the rafters one minute and crooning through tear-soaked eyes the next. On efforts like 'Tailored', she shimmies off the shackles of restraint and just inserts energy with gusto. Beginning slow, the track soon hurtles towards infinity, escalating quickly from an unassuming ditty to a synthpop anthem.
As the release of their eponymous debut rapidly approached, Mano's Daughter were keen to enhance their status as live performers. Since the opening months of 2013, they've been racking up shows left, right and centre, both to sharpen their onstage skills and to ensure that their music translates from album to show perfectly. The group have since played at numerous hotspots across old London town, and ventured further afield for festivals (like the recent HogSozzle) and general giggery – they play Brighton's Blind Tiger tonight (June 3rd), for example.



Mano's Daughter's superbly crafted debut proves the amount of dedication the band have for their music. They've toiled for years on the record, and the effort that's gone into making it shows – they have great attention to detail, there's not a single superfluous beat or note, and though it's basically entirely synthetic (aside from Carter's voice), it's not overworked or fatiguing on the ears. There's also, rather oddly, a cover of Tim Minchin's 'Beauty', tucked away on there.
If you're looking for spectacular, bold, torrents of electropop, look no further. If you want music that's wrought with emotional heft and smothered in radio-aimed nuggets of synthy splendour, head this way. If songs so massive the band struggle to keep them confined to disc are your thing, then Mano's Daughter might just be your new favourite band.