Manitoba - Start Breaking My Heart

Classically trained musicians have been making their way towards electronic music for some time now, and Canadian Dan Snaith is a further proof that classical music is not a dead end, neither is it incompatible with the use of samplers, keyboards and drum machines.
With Start Breaking My Heart, Dan Snaith, AKA Manitoba, demonstrates a similar playful cinematic approach to electronic music as Boards Of Canada. However, Snaith also displays a more experimental side of his talent, and doesn’t wait long to inject some rather furious moments in his well-behaved compositions. After the slightly melancholic Dundas, Ontario and People Eating Fruit, built around smooth sounds and carefully chosen beats, Mammals & Reptiles destroys the quietude by breaking the fragile banks of its jazz-influenced thread with a deluge of out of control sound collisions, replicating the most complex jazz structures. The Manitoba river soon regains its bed, when Snaith decides to re-use the opening theme in Brandon. However, the new settings give a complete different dimension to the song. All throughout the album, the man pours hot and cold as he pleases, as he wanders in the excruciating wickedness of his mind, stringing courteous melodies after abstract constructions, as if he was inserting precious oasis of simplicity between intricate wastelands. Sometimes reminiscent of Squarepusher or µ-Ziq, Dan Snaith infuses some descent amount of jazz, evoking in parts Miles Davis. Yet, it is probably in the quietest moments, when Snaith reveals a flair for clever, catchy melodies, that he creates the most memorable tracks. The structure of People Eating Fruit, Brandon or Happy Ending is simple and yet terribly effective, as he drops tuneful child-like songs, creating little pieces of joyful and harmless widescreen fun.
Start Breaking My Heart is an imaginative record, with enough personality to stand out by itself, and Dan Snaith proves to be one hell of a clever musician, already making a good impact on the electronic family.