Artist: Manticore
Title: Sweet FM
Label: Baroque Records
By: Simon Jones | 9 September 2002
Tracklist:

• A: Original Mix
• B: Innate Full House Mix

Manticore "Sweet FM"

The mysterious Manticore, a producer known only to me as 'Harris' has been in the Baroque stable for some time, having released the excellent 'Slaves' which came with a remix from Brancaccio and Aisher. More recently a Brancaccio and Aisher Dub was released on Baroque's 20th release, and now it is quickly followed up with a new track entitled 'Sweet FM', a track that has been causing a stir since it's inclusion on Baroque's 7 Magazine covermount mix in Christmas 2001.

The Original Mix is simple in it's construction, a bass drum and some rolling percussion forming the main chunk of the intro, synths firing off as the track evolves, dark and moody grooves locking in with light rhythms as the track builds towards the break, where the weird sounds of radio tuning between stations kicks in, only to lock back into another channel and we're off on a tribalistic journey from here. Quirky as hell, and something very different indeed

Innate puts his hand to the track on the flip, delivering a Full House Mix, a more spacey intro pushing it's way into a sparse percussive groove, techy pads filtering through the bassline, deep sub-bass entering, which wouldnt be out of place in a filthy breakbeat track, and for a moment you think this perhaps where the track is going to head but then twisted stabs make an appearance, giving this track a warm techo influenced vibe as we build towards a minimal string break before the chaos kicks back in once more. Crazy, but slickly produced, and an awesome reinterpretation of the original.

Baroque pushes on once more, and with a new single from Odessi on the horizon, things seem to be looking very good indeed.