MaNga – MaNga+ (Sony)
Reviewed by Sadie O., 10/25/06
Turkish metal with large doses of hip hop and Turkitude. It’s a bit as if you started out with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and got them to occasionally sing in nice harmonies, pitched in lots of Turkish elements as well as electronica and pompous orchestral moments, a bit of turntablism… Why be tied down to a genre, or even two or three genres? Check out their wikipedia entry - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MaNga
All in Turkish (except 16), no known FCCs. Everything is really inventive and interesting and sounds good – the only somewhat crap tracks are 8 and 15, and there’s a LOT of great music here.
1. **big theatrical intro, big drums, synth strings and scratching.
2. ***great midtempo beat, sort of metal hip hop with distinctly Turkish melodic and rhythmic elements.
3. *****crazy uptempo electronic beat, then funky metal cover of a Turkish reggae/hip hop hit. Absolutely fun. False ending about 3 minutes in. Stick around for the headbanging!
4. ***uptempo metal with occasional exotic strings, a bit of hip hop.
5. **midtempo electronic rhythm with rap and anthemic metal moments and bits of actual prettiness.
6. **uptempo hip hoppish beat with scratching and orchestration. Energetic rapping and electronica. Oh, a pretty interlude with lovely male singing – why not?
7. ***midtempo circus march that turns into heavy funky bass and urgent rapping with pretty merry go round and scratching. Oh, and some big metal guitars.
8. *subdued piano intro, big downtempo theatrical business, pretty singing – this must be the power ballad. Except for the bit with the polka…
9. **random for a few bits, then straight up heavy metal, with electronic beeps. Some female vocals on this. Nice midtempo beat.
10. ***rather uptempo, almost thrash but lots of other stuff, too.
11. ***pretty hand drum intro, funky midtempo beat, more Anatolian than metal, with rapping. Well, there’s some whispering, and now it’s more metal.
12. ***atmospheric intro with exotic female vocals, then downtempo bass and scratching and sound collage, and anthemic metal.
13. **random noises and distorted spoken “maNga”, then midtempo electronic beat and pretty noises/scratching.
14. ***random intro with bits of heavy metal guitar, then perky midtempo electronica, then hip hop/anthemic metal.
15. *keyboard and drone intro, slow and atmospheric, reprise of the power ballad – but it has some decent hand drums buried in there.
16. ****energetic cobbled electronic beat, then some ethereal bits, silence for three minutes, then hip hop in English with great bass, later combined with Turkish metal. Great song – starts at 3:38 in (4:03 remaining, according to my iTunes), ends about 15 seconds shy.