The FM4 Soundpark is a web-platform, community, and radio show for Austrian musicians. Every month, one act is selected to be highlighted both online and on air: The FM4 Soundpark Act of the Month. This month the honor goes to Manic Youth, with their album “Funland”.
From My Bloody Valentine to Dinosaur Jr. to Wu-Tang Clan, Manic Youth probes the dramas of human existence with their 90s indie rock on their debut “Funland” and is the Soundpark Act of the Month for December.
The bass is booming, the guitars are droning and lurching, the drums are banging. In the midst of the noisy inferno, the voice gently embeds itself in the multi-layered sound of the young band Manic Youth. And already we are standing in the middle of “Funland”, the refuge of Dongsu Suh, Max Zamernik, Moritz Rauter and Leon Truschner. Bass and drums form the secure foundation on which the dream castles are built. The noisy guitar walls have a glittering facade, while the velvety voices form the cosy interior, with cushy surfaces which invite you to linger.
Manic Youth has created a place where everything is allowed to be; even the difficult topics and emotions.
Of fears and emotional chaos
“Funland” was created, like so many albums last year, in the first lockdown. The four musicians sometimes met illegally in the rehearsal room, and so mixed in with the positive excitement of working on new songs was the paranoia that a passing person might hear that music was being made here. This paranoia has also found its way onto the album.
Again and again, the “new fears” of the young generation are addressed. The very first song “Telephobia (a new end)”, which explosively opens the new album with a dragging beat and loud, distorted guitars, deals with the fear of having to get by without a cell phone. Drummer Moritz Rauter has meanwhile developed a great aversion to social media and constant accessibility; because he, too, knows the fear of (thinking you’re) missing out (“FOMO”) on something if you’re not constantly online and reachable.
The single “Crystal Mess”, which comes along loosely fluffily in soft pop garb, also develops from the initial feeling of being in love, to fearful disillusionment, and reflects the inner struggle and confusion that can result from romantic relationships. We are deep in the “Crystal Mess”, the emotional chaos, whereby in the song it remains to be seen what happens in the end, once you have freed yourself from the mess.
From infatuation to self-love
Moritz describes the album very nicely by saying that it is an attempt to express the tragic weight of earthly existence. What could be more tragic than being stuck in the throes of difficult relationships? One could also ascribe a certain coming of age to the album. Worthy of mention is one track called “Coming Of H”, in which the guys, with Cure-like phaser guitars and dreamy melodies, talk about getting older, only slowly, but still deciding against the “auto-tune perfume” at every point, and preferring to stay a bit “out of tune”.
The always slightly off-key vocals and the magic of the songs, which are often found in the little mistakes and “inaccuracies”, are very much in the tradition of Manic Youth’s idols. At the top of the list are My Bloody Valentine, who with their eggy guitars, incredibly broad noisy sound and hidden vocals, used more like an instrument, gave 90s guitar indie rock a very special imprint. Also the always a bit wry sounding world-weariness of Dinosaur Jr. can be heard, as well as the love for the loud yet quiet dynamic of The Notwist, which they perfected with the album “Nook” and “12”. And, of course, parallels to Naked Lunch can often be heard as well. After all, the guys not only grew up in Klagenfurt, but with Max Zamernik, the son of Herwig Zamernik aka Fuzzman and bassist of Naked Lunch, also finds himself in the band as the master of the deep four strings.
All these references fit very well with the resounding melancholy, which in Manic Youth, despite the tragedy, always has something conciliatory in it as well. For even when love relationships are broken, the “queen girl” is looked upon with an inner embrace of loss.
Thus, despite scuffs and injuries, the hearts of Manic Youth grow, become bigger, and pivot from infatuation to boundless love, to self-acceptance with all its flaws and weaknesses, and thereby to self-love, which is the basis for good relationships.
Shoegaze for the end of sadness
Manic Youth’s “Funland,” through which we can stroll, offers us space and time to dream, to let ourselves fall into the band’s broad, wispy sound, to drift away and thus perhaps come upon the buried feelings and needs that are all too easily lost, in the rush of everyday life.
“Funland” is a refuge, and a chance for reflection at the same time. You can let yourself drift with the energetic songs and take a break from “the world out there”. At the same time, it offers the opportunity to look within and perceive the resonance of the themes hidden in the washed-out songs. This grandiose musical landscape is always fun. Last but not least, in times of loss and distance, it is a warming embrace to remind us what makes us human: to be there for each other and accept each other with all the flaws and confusions, to promote the strengths and courage to pursue our own dreams.
In this way, “Funland” can herald the end of anger over disappointments and sadness over losses. Because that’s what recording the record did for the four musicians, let go a bit of the struggle with the world and with themselves.
Andreas Gstettner-Brugger
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Translated from the German original published on Dec. 1st, 2021 by Arianna Fleur Alfreds.