La Ninja: Amor and Other Dreams of Manzanita
Label: Plug Research
Rated: NONE
WorkNameSort: La Ninja: Amor and Other Dreams of Manzanita
The processors and machines that Mia Doi Todd shed in order to put together the contemplative organics of last year’s Manzanita have returned in electronically augmented renditions on La Ninja: Amor and Other Dreams of Manzanita, some new cuts and remixes from labelmates and friends. Nobody’s take on “What if We Do?” allows the West Coast beatsmith to visit his inner Byrdsian tea-on-the-rug spirit with sitar drones and jangly percussion. Engineer/Brian Jonestown Massacre contributor Rob Campanella and multi-instrumentalist Meow Meow member Kirk Hellie brazenly pitch-bend and shift the string accompaniment on “The Last Night of Winter,” pushing the vocals back in a whirl of bonfire atmospherics. Though three versions of the plentifully detailed “My Room Is White” are clearly uncalled for, Dungen’s floor toms, snare rattles and guitar work whisk it off to spacious desert embankments, calling to the sparsely organic arrangement that made it so rewarding to begin with.
This article appears in Mar 29 – Apr 4, 2006.