Dan Mangan - Unmake EP - MP3

"Making Unmake was a really necessary cathartic experience for me. I'd been so into making "albums" for so long that it seemed impossible to create music outside of that structure. In many ways, this was a gratuitous play for me - just recording things because they were enjoyable. Re-hashing stripped down songs from Club Meds was nice because that album was so purposefully meticulous, and these feel much more rough and live. Working with Tegan Quin was a real pleasure because I love her voice and I've always admired how her and Sara have managed being mega stars while remaining wonderfully human and intensely engaged with their fans. Hang With Me is such a great song. Robyn has an ability to match hooky dance pop songs with intelligent lyricism and her personality is so vivid within the songs. On first listen, it seems the singer is a tad self-involved, dictating if and how people can "hang with them" - but I think the deeper message in the song is the fear of being open and vulnerable enough to just let oneself get hurt in the pursuit of love - and singing about that is, strangely...vulnerable. We recorded Whistleblower in 6/8 for Club Meds and it got lost in the shuffle and never made the records. Putting it in 4/4 and reducing it to my acoustic and Gord's electric noise-washes seemed to give it a classic protest song kind of vibe within a modern context."

Tracklist

1. Whistleblower

2. Hang With Me (Robyn Cover)

3. Race To The Bottom

4. Forgetery Redux (feat. Tegan Quin)

5. Kitsch Redux