The last time we checked in, Glo Phase was a Pittsburgh-based artist making well-crafted left-of-field deep house, or something like it. 2024 finds him on the Other Coast, creating music for “a run of live downtempo events and soirées around Los Angeles.” Manifesto is the album that resulted, and I think I’d also call it “left-of-field downtempo, or something like it.”
Manifesto is everything, and not in the sense that there’s a track with a disco sample backed up against a pastiche of Fred Again.. Manifesto is everything melted down until every unnecessary impurity boils off, and you can watch chunks of the original float up to the top and dissipate before your eyes. This isn’t the AI generated pink slime of lo-fi hip hop that has proliferated to such a degree that distributors have begun to filter and ban it at the source. Manifesto doesn’t even have samples, according to the liner notes. Manifesto is a modern novelty: the chill music album that doesn’t fade into the background like wallpaper but is constantly the most interesting thing in the room.
If there’s a constant in Glo Phase’s music it’s been the bass (he was a bass player growing up, he told me some years ago.) That’s the center that holds Manifesto together. The album begins with a half-heard conversation and demonic laughter, hushed by off-kilter but dreamy chords and then those Massive Attack-style “Karmacoma” drums kick in. The title track adds a slick, oily vaporwave sheen, evaporating in the heat index. “Allure of the Earth” finds its inspiration in mining gems from modern jazz blended with ’90s electronica.
Manifesto apparently underwent a punishing process in order to whittle the tracklisting down from 60 to the 11 best tracks that make up the final album. It was worth the culling: this is easily one of my favorite albums of the year.
⚪️ Manifesto Tracklisting
Glo Phase: Manifesto (Digital)
1. Will Not Be Forgotten (03:44)
2. Manifesto (02:28)
3. The Innermost Layer (03:44)
4. Elude the Mood (02:32)
5. Allure of the Earth (04:05)
6. The Space Between Us (02:21)
7. Dreamself (03:54)
8. Chasing Time (01:48)
9. Opening Your Eyes (03:22)
10. Of the Infinite Sky (03:08)
11. All Those Loveletters (03:41)
⚪️ Disclosure Statement
This record was not submitted as a promo.
5 Mag Issue 215
Out August 2024
NEW FUTURISM: This was originally published in 5 Mag Issue #215 featuring Rick Wade on AI, art and the future of making music, Tilman, James Chance, Chicago house history, Cajmere and more. Become a member for $2/month and get every issue in your inbox right away!
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[…] of Survival: One-o-One EP (Fventi), Suburban Knight (Detroit Techno), Lay-Far (In-Beat-Ween), Glo Phase: Manifesto, Jon Delerious: Deepest Hour (Nordic Trax), Crooked Man (Vicious Charm) and Tevo Howard: As We […]