Manilla

Bio:

.. London based Manilla are Simon Goodwin and Phil Heard. Phil and Simon met through a friend during the early 90's. They discovered they shared a love of deep electronic music combined with mutual enthusiasms for pure melody and impure space-age-batchelor-pad kitsch. The boys subsequently teamed up to form Manilla in the late 90's. In addition to their shared music background Phil brought a love of dub and hip-hop and Simon a love of krautrock and electro-pop to the heady Manilla mix.

Initially Manilla pursued a jazzy d'n'b / breakbeat sound. Their first demo resulted in them signing to Belgium's seminal R&S label and a subsequent 12" release. The mothballing of R&S led to Manilla retreating to the studio to concentrate on developing their sound. During this period the band were commissioned to produce music for TV and film as well as undertaking a number of remixes.

Manilla enjoy performing live, often with additional 'backing' vocals from Michelle Deignan and also recently Pete Moss on guitar. They have gigged widely in London and played the Huw Stephens programmed Lake Stage at the first Latitude festival in Suffolk in the summer of 2006. The boys can occassionally be found dropping Manilla DJ sets, in venues as diverse as the Big Chill Bar and The Photographers Gallery. Simon Manilla also regularly DJs solo.

Recent releases
The 4 Piece EP, Lo Recordings - clear vinyl 7" and digital download
Lorenzo on Idea Hoard Uncut compilation, Uncharted Audio - CD and digital download
Michelle on Readers Wavs compilation, via the Big Chill - triple CD
De La D on Inspired By Delia Derbyshire: Plug Me In compilation, Myuzyk - digital download

Member Since:

December 15, 2005

Members:

Simon & Phil plus occasional others

Influences:

Amongst many others: Flying Lizards, Vince Clark, The Mad Professor, Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Mantronix, Afrika Bambaataa, Public Enemy, The Beastie Boys, Derrick May, Orbital, 808 State, The Black Dog, Plaid, Kraftwerk, Can, Neu!, Brian Eno, Burt Kaempfert, Ennio Morricone, Esqivel, Tito Puente, Herb Alpert, Atom™, Luke Vibert, Thievery Corporation, Tipsy, library music, dodgy cover versions, fine ales, Rizla+, Salbutamol, old skool and the all healing power of universal love...

Sounds Like:

"Lounge-y, jazzy, frothy breaks easy-pop-tronica a la Fantastic Plastic Machine, Sons of Silence, Tipsy and co. only brought bang up to date","Lucky Pierre on happy pills","Quirky, cheeky Tipsy-esque / Lisa Carbon Trio-ish easy-listening and gentle bossa sounds, touched up with a hint of offbeat electronica and acid","A cheesy fusion of the most irritating TV jingles of the last 10 years" or "Latin inspired funky gear along the lines of David Holmes or summat"...apparently.

Record Label:

Lo Recordings