Prog4you.com - Progressive Rock Review

From my research, Groove Manifest is a one man band from the United States. I had never heard of him and it was also difficult to find information on the artist. I did listen to a radio interview with the artist, Aaron (I could not find his last name) and learned he has extensive musical training and went independent because he did not like how record labels were treating the artists. I respect that. The music is somewhat hard to describe. The artist describes it as “experimental art-rock”. As far as I can tell this is a fairly apt description. You could also label it experimental post-rock or guitar-based electronica. Whatever you call it, it is different.

This is one of those albums where it is difficult to do a song-by-song review so I will do my best to describe the music to you as a whole. The main instruments are the guitar and various forms of percussion. Sometimes the music is very minimalist while at other times the band creates a dense wall of sound. The vocals are somewhat understated, usually mellow and are often back in the mix. It is quite an effective style that really fits this type of instrumentation. This music does not sound like anything I have previously heard so it is hard to give you a comparison with another band. I can say that it is a pretty unique sound and worth exploring if you are interested in experimental music. I should also note the lyrics are pretty interesting. In case you are interested the website provides lyrics to all of the album’s songs.

Album highlights include “Vaccination” with its irresistible melody amongst layers of sound and “Off The Wall” with it’s neat guitar and pleasant sounding vocals. One minor complaint I have is the songs begin to sound similar after a while and more variation would have been appreciated. That being said Groove Manifest deserves a lot of credit for trying something this experimental and off-the-wall. If you are looking for something a little different and like to support independent artists, by all means seek this one out. You can download the songs from the website for free and donations are accepted or you can buy the cd on-line.

Rating: 7 (out of ten)
Reviewer: Jon Neudorf

Visit the Artist’s Website

Discography
The Etiquette Of Prejudice (2006)