Don Mandarin - NARRATTI OF TRIBUNE

Album: NARRATTI OF TRIBUNE

Artist: Don Mandarin

Label: Nailed Nazarene Industries

Catalogue no: Unknown

Tracklist:

     1.      MAY THINGS IN THE PAST CEASE TO EXIST

     2.      MAY THINGS IN THE FUTURE NEVER BE BORN

     3.      MAY THINGS IN THE PRESENT CEASE TO HARM US

Describing and contextualising Don Mandarin’s work must surely qualify as one of the six impossible things to do before breakfast. I’ve listened to a few of his recordings and I found that trying to pin down such abstruse and slippery abstractions is like attempting to climb a greased pole. It is at once complex, unreal, as malleable as wet clay, as solid as concrete, and yet is as subject to interpretation as anything elusive and ephemeral usually is. In this instance, his first recording issued by Brazil’s Nailed Nazarene Industries label, this is possibly as close to a ‘concept’ album, or at least a thematically linked work, as he’s ever released. (Also, I apologise now for any philosophical musings on my part in the following – combining a Monday morning with a lack of caffeine brings on altered states of consciousness…)

Track 1, ‘MAY THINGS IN THE PAST CEASE TO EXIST’, poses something of a philosophical question – does the past (and by extension, I suppose, the future too) actually exist in any real sense? Once a moment has passed on, does it cease to be, or is it stored in some great universal ‘memory bank’, to be retrieved at some point once the key to open it has been discovered? And if we do, does that mean that any bad or uncomfortable memories can be erased or altered? Judging by the maelstrom of hellish overloaded howl on this opening number, there would be some who would only be too happy to see some aspects of their past selves atomised and pulverised into non-existence. It’s as if some ravenous beast with a black hole for a maw sits ever-ready to ingest the concept of the past (and the collective memories of all) and consign it to oblivion. And, given its 20-minute running time, some have a lot of regretful actions to sort through…

In some respects the future is the most malleable of the time streams, and track 2, ‘MAY THINGS IN THE FUTURE NEVER BE BORN’ is the one thing that all of us have wished for at one time or another. A sustained fuzzed guitar chord roars, building and collapsing, suggesting that the concept of the future is flexible, and only subject to change before it’s actually happened (ie. it’s not predestined or set in stone). At only just under two minutes, there’s a possibility that it’s also suggesting that one quick moment of action is all that’s needed to change outcomes.

Noise ambient is the most appropriate nomenclature for the final offering, ‘MAY THINGS IN THE PRESENT CEASE TO HARM US’, with its washes and planes of sweetened noise and drones that to my ears appear as harbingers of hope and promise, tempered perhaps with the knowledge that we must be ever vigilant. A wordless voice drifts along with the currents which directs it where they will, darting through white clouds which nevertheless roil and churn through endless layers of atmosphere. It is for the most part positive but veined through with a seam of the negative, as if saying that we should grab the good but be acutely aware of the bad that might tag along with it.

An intriguing suite of pieces, tied together through the idea of time and its elusive qualities, which together tell a complex story without layering on the aural convolutions in order to do so. We each relate to time in different ways, and experience it uniquely. I suppose what I am trying to say here is that my reaction to NARRATTI OF TRIBUNE is filtered through my own entanglement with time, and that if you read between the lines there’s much that you can glean from this. My own preference is for works that make me think, not just inwardly but outwardly as well, and of all the Don Mandarin I’ve heard this has been the most thought-provoking by far. As far as I am concerned, that’s what I want from music – and this has it in droves.

Available as a download from Nailed Nazarene Industries’ Bandcamp page:

https://nailednazareneindustries.bandcamp.com/album/narratti-of-tribune

Psymon Marshall 2019.

Don Mandarin - Ghosts of the past and present.

Don Mandarin Tapes 

YouTube Channel

Don Mandarin – Mother of all the distortions. – Cassette – Don Mandarin Tapes – date unknown.

Don Mandarin – Local Sounds Volume 2. – Cassette – Don Mandarin tapes – date unknown.

Who is Don Mandarin? All I know is there’s a Facebook profile of the same name that appeared a few years ago and started adding people who were into Noise and Experimental music. The profile was vague and didn’t tell you anything about them. All that was there was an abundance of unexplained images and Don Mandarin artworks. Videos of odd esoteric sounds with videos started to appear through his feed and on people’s walls - no comments or anything. The artist also sold tapes of their work on eBay and sometimes in box sets through other labels. I suspect the project has some African source roots, there are rumours of works being recorded under seance conditions, there may be some esoteric link to the artists past and present and the dates of when the works were recorded are sketchy. Some of the sources to the works are rumoured to be decades old - that’s all the biographical details that I know about this large body work.

All images supplied by Don Mandarin .

The ‘Mother of all the distortions’ cassette looks very much like a Don Mandarin work or Dona Mangerine as they are known on this recording – a photocopied cover with an image of a young woman and text, little else. The sounds on the first side come across as a warped ritual, where the speed is constantly tweaked to confuse the listener as to what the real source is. It is slightly rhythmic through its warped qualities and the vocal sounds are indecipherable. The sounds are pulled about, stretched and distorted beyond any recognisable coherence. I wouldn’t want to hazard a guess as to what this is.  It’s alluring in its’ obscurity and mystery. Simple, subtle methods make it something other that can’t be recognised.  

The second side of Mother of all the distortions instead of being more field recordings is ambient sounds that are based on resonating drone patterns.  Side 2 has a semi-religious feel that ties it into the first side. Had the rituals of the first side continued onto the next side, there is a strong chance it could have kicked its own ass. Changing everything shifts things well, keeps it interesting and makes for two very strong, subtle pieces of work.

‘Local Sounds Volume 2’; also listed as Dona Mangerine, is a more ambient sounding release, I am unsure if it is all sourced field recordings of local sounds and made into pieces of work or made using instrumentation, samples or all. Like parts of the other material it uses huge arching drones, rumbling and different drone frequencies. It also has holy chanting tones to it as if ascending to a spiritual realm. Like Mother of all the Distortions, it uses simple juxtapositions to a strong effect, making for an impressive work.

The other side of Local Sounds is a lot darker and murkier. This seems to be the dark in comparison to the first side’s light, occupying a more - Dark Ambient territory. It dies off and returns darker than before with more aggressive sounds as if playfully engaging in a more Death Industrial soundscape; Infected synths anchor the work in the genre as it moves around that.  

These two tapes effectively deliver four separate pieces of work. Each piece is; strong, individual and well delivered. My personal favourite is the first side of Mother… but I am sure individual opinions will vary. But I feel I am no wiser about Don Mandarin than I was before, the chameleon like nature of the tapes throws me out even further. But I’m not complaining, all I know is that I want more.

Choppy Noodles 2019.