Listening to this album will make you feel like you’ve been stung

June’s Picture Show

Ingram Hill

Hollywood Records

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June’s Picture Show

Ingram Hill

Hollywood Records

Estratexa

Manta Ray

NIM Producciones

Recommended if you like: The Rapture

Manta Ray’s fourth album, titled Estratexa, is unofficially their eighth if you count their collaborations with Corcobado, Diabologum and Schwarz, among others. Manta Ray’s sound on Estratexa can be best described as dirty techno. It is filled with distorted guitars, the standard blips and bleeps, and odd time signatures. Without many vocals, it also isn’t the easiest album to groove to. It is an album that lacks accessibility, organization and discipline.

All good pop music should have some familiar elements as well as some novel ones. This album is completely without the former. Without anything familiar for the listener to grab onto, it becomes a very disappointing listen. It takes repeated listens just to understand what, exactly, is going on, and after that, there really isn’t much substance. It is without the intrigue that is executed so well by many other artists today.

Good pop music often makes the listeners think to themselves, “Why didn’t I think of that?” Manta Ray’s latest album, on the other hand, makes the listener think, “I thought of that last week and scrapped it because it sounded so bad.” Many of the melodic lines are repetitive and placed without warrant. Dare I say that Estratexa is, in its entirety, without a single well-placed melody? I think so.

Not wanting to think about this album anymore, I leave you with these final words: If you purchase this album, don’t claim that you were not warned. If you really want to listen to it, you can borrow my copy. Actually, you can have my copy.