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LP
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FTR 439LP
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"A lot of people flipped out over how amazing Mako Sica's last album, Ronda (FTR 409LP, 2018), was. Ronda was a 2LP set whereupon the Chicago trio collaborated with legendary local percussionist Hamid Drake. This pairing seemed like a natural to us, but for some reason people have been woefully unaware of Mako Sica despite the fact they've been releasing killer records for a decade, and playing live shows that submerge your brain in a sonic soup that recalls the Sun City Girls at their most psychedelically Eastern. The band's approach to music feels almost alchemical. Trumpet, voice, guitar, drums and keys blend together in mysterious ways. The vocals are always more abstract than declarative, the guitar lines are sinewy, the rhythms roll and splash like a mirage oasis made real, and the trumpet arrives (when it does) sounding almost more like a shofar being played in a temple. The sound of Manifest Being is celebratory and so fully freaked you'll be soaking in it for years to come. The songs played are similar to the live set Mako Sika were polishing last year, and the results are stunning." --Byron Coley, 2019 Edition of 250.
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LP
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FTR 326LP
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"Pretty sure this amazing Chicago trio was first introduced to us when Jim McCardle insisted we buy one of their albums at a record fair in the Windy City. Not sure which one it was, but it blew us away. Surprisingly, over the damn-near-a-decade since they started recording, Mako Sica has managed to keep itself well out of the limelight. Even though their first LP, Mayday At Strobe (2009), was released by one of Chicago's pre-eminent vanguard labels -- Permanent -- it was not easy to locate people who have grooved to the band's Sun City Girls meet Blood Quartet vibe. Eventually, however, we tracked them down and found out they had new material waiting to go. They sent the files for Invocation and we were ready to squirt vinyl in a New York Minute. The wordless (if not vocal-less) parabola Makos Sica's music follows is an unending wonder -- a blend of tones that cross many overt rockist spheres while maintaining textural similarities to outfits like the Bitchin Bajas or Joshua Abrams' Natural Information Society, with a taste of the surfist proclivities of such bands as early Savage Republic. The material on this LP is cooked hard and deep in its own juices. There are moments you'd swear you're listening to Northern African guitar tropes, but then Make Sica's sound breaks open into waves of psychedelia unimagined in that scene. There are simmers of tone that feel Germanic in the most basic of ways. But these usually end up erupting in ways that absolutely negate form specificity. In fact, the more I listen to this, the more purely tripped-the-fuck-out it sounds. Amazing shit. Ignore at your own peril." --Byron Coley Edition of 300.
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LP
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LSE 027LP
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"Primal and earthen, Essence is by far their most expansive work to date. The second full-length effort from the band ventures deep into the avant garde, citing influences like the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Sun Ra, but also maintains a nervous punk energy."
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