Listen: Mansionair - "Hold Me Down"

A casual, meandering piece of indie-electro pop, it’s a master-stroke in restraint with a note perfect understanding of the complementary overlap between genres. Unfurling to reveal simple guitar licks and a blues vocal, the production slowly introduces foreign elements: reverb drawing echoes around the vocal and synth tracks punctuating the interplay between the bass and drums. It’s a pointedly effective way to draw you into the darker waters of the second half, where ​the focus shifts dramatically, ending the track on a flurry of electronics: the melody maintained but shone through a pointedly contrasting lens, enrapturing in the kind of natural ambient noises that would make Glass Animals proud.

It’s not hard to see why Mansionair have been signed to Goodbye Records: there’s no huge rift between their sound and that of their mentors. Both bands’ oeuvre sits in a grey area between sounds, and reaps the rewards of their multiple influences. Music is often at its best when it begs, steals and borrows from the fabric of other styles. Unfortunately the ease with which music is now consumed can result in the sickness that all too often follows gluttony, with cynics more than happy to complain about a lack of originality, specifically in mainstream music. Mansionhouse seem to be part of a new breed of bands subverting this flaw: using the ease of exploration to produce music whose ambitions are limited by neither the past nor the present, but revelling joyfully in the future.

Mansionair’s “Hold Me Down” EP is released on October 10th via Goodbye Records. Limited 12” vinyl will be released later in the year and can be pre-ordered here.

“Hold Me Down” tracklist:

1. Hold Me Down 2. Second Night

3. Hold Me Down (Maths Time Joy Remix)

4. Hold Me Down (L C A W Remix)

5. Hold Me Down (The Range Remix)