Tom Drexl
Man Create!
"Man Create!" as my eighth album is something special for me. It's the first full solo effort since the 2015 “You name it”. But unlike this, "Man Create!" has much more of an consistent album feel to it. Most of the material stems from one period of 2024 and 25. In spite of their different genres the eclectic tracks still share a common energy that makes it a coherent listening experience.
"This planet is a prison" and "No Yoke" are arcing the album. It's the feeling of being trapped on the one hand and the confidence in the truth of inner liberation. Like these some of the other lyrics circle around the multiple crisis of the present time too. But they do it always with a positive perspective, like with "Man Create" itself. The first version of this song came into being as early as 1995. I added just a view lines and took the structure and melody mostly like it was back then. This message still is up-to-date for me since there's so much to dig up from the endless potential we bathe ourselves in.
There are three instrumentals on the album, "Space siblings", "Morning sun" and "Neududel". Those too are as different as they can be. "Space siblings" developed in a cooperation with the "Silky Dolls" (the "ABBA of muzak") and turned out to be a live improvised synth soundscape journey into space realms.
"Morning sun" was recorded back in 2009. It never found its way on a Hobotwang album. But for "Man Create" it was a perfect rounding. So I added a little background vocals and remastered the original.
"Neududel", the only German named track here is as close to a live jam as overdubbing can get.
"Happiness..." is the tongue-in-cheek "Helter Skelter" of this album. I always wanted to do a track with massive brick wall guitars - so here it is! A step into a new direction as well is "Head in the sand", my first hard rock approach since the days of "Indigo 5". Lyrically it is "Prison" and "No Yoke" in a box, so to speak. Stop being sucked into a screen and live.
The title line of "So finally..." stems from a prophetic video I saw on YouTube. Though sometimes its truth is hard to believe I nevertheless felt a convincing power in that somewhat copiously worded statement. It was the most complicated song in mixing here with lots of versions, but i thing it turned out fine sonically. I like the different layers of piano tracks there that add up to interesting harmonical junctions.
"These days.." is a very personal acoustic song that softens the energy after "Happiness" and "Neududel".
"Mushroom seekers" is actually the third incarnation of a piece that started as an instrumental with tons of overdubbed tracks out of a Casio e-piano that built a bouncy and positive vibe but was completely over the top with the amount of tracks. Next step was a reggae version with only a view of the original tracks that was given a solid rhythmical and harmonical structure. Still I didn't feel interesting enough for me so I turned it into a live mixed dub (by reducing all tracks to four or five stems). Eventually I added the vocals and the whole thing started to make sense. This time I worked with heavy pitch shifting effects on the lead vocal.
So have a good time listening, I hope the music will leave you with a good vibe!
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