Manslaughter 777, the musical boundary defying group who feature Lee Buford (The Body/Sightless Pit) and Zac Jones (MSC/Nothing) return with their second album God’s World, and it sees the duo working alongside producer/engineer Seth Manchester (who has worked extensively with The Body as well as Liturgy and others) to create a journey through a vast array of electronic influences.
God’s World is the follow up to 2021s World Vision Perfect Harmony and is markedly even more eclectic than their first album taking in soundscapes heavily influenced by house, jungle, hip hop, techno, dub and reggae and the results are sublime. Free from any boundaries are making the music they want to make, Manslaughter 777 have made a brilliant album here, and you can feel the passion for this music oozing out of the speakers from beginning to end.
An intense scream starts proceedings on opening track ‘I Do Not Believe In Art’ and then sharply moves into a throbbing dance beat that segues into a breakbeat heavy groove and from this striking opening displays the eclecticism that God’s World revels in.
From then on the album takes in the hip hop break heavy ‘Power In The Blood’ (a track that samples the “Bravehearts” chant from the end of ‘Made You Look’ by Nas, which towards the end morphs into a pulsating house beat and does so effortlessly, the hypnotising bass heavy dub on ‘Child Of’, a speaker shattering track featuring MSC and then, the clattering breakbeats and throbbing noise of ‘Luv’ and the otherworldly echo of ‘Star Pig’.
The frenetic jungle/noise hybrid that is ‘Silk Barricade’ is a highlight of God’s World with a menacing beat prevailing throughout while the sublime ‘Pulling A Truck Up A Hill’ offers a blissed out period of tranquility before the pounding ‘Die In The Night’ amps up the beautifully heavy vibes again with a formidable display of bass pressure.
God’s World concludes with the shimmering footwork-esque beats of ‘Clipped And 15 Extended’ before the brilliantly swaggering ‘So End It’ a track that sounds as if it could have come straight out of a 90s D&D studios session or a Boot Camp Clik track ends proceedings with a wonderfully satisfying conclusion.
Exploring breaks, beats and grooves and the beauty of bass music is at the very heart of God’s World and Manslaughter 777 do this extremely well and when they blend styles, it is done so with a passion for the music and doesn’t do things just for the sake of doing it.
God’s World is a fantastic album and one that sees Manslaughter 777 elevating their music to an even higher plateau, with the love of what they do shining through the entire album. It’s forward thinking vibe is intoxicating and fans of any form of bass heavy music will find a new favourite album here.
