Photo by Sean Stout

Artist: Shaki Tavi, the band moniker of songwriter Leon Manson

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Buzz: Leon Manson isn’t wasting time playing around in shallow feedback pools or wading his voice through a murk of distortion before mustering up the courage to be heard. Unlike too many within the modern wave of shoegaze more concerned with pinning themselves to a certain aesthetic, he’s leaping right into the crashing extremes loud and clear through his noise-pop vehicle Shaki Tavi. There’s no need to get caught up in narrow facets of a sound when there’s a whole spectrum of it to explore, and Manson wants to dive into it all. More than anything, he wants for you to feel it all with him on his recently released breakthrough sophomore effort, Minor Slip.

Mammoth, skull-rattling riffs erupt from his “Lip” and through the “Trees”. Bleary-eyed adrenaline rushes sweep you into the glint of “Sunscreen” and eviscerate you on “Peeler”. “Foam” rages right alongside the existential dread with an Oasis-sized grandeur. The constant push and pull of his head-weighted emotions — whether sinking beneath his own daily malaise or drifting away out-of-body skyward — always find their way back to ground with a hard reality, however, especially when synced up to a Big Beat drum, as with “Breaker” tempering his mood in a cooler, trip-hop air.

Shaki Tavi’s style is also at odds with most everything we’ve come to know from the DIY underground where most artists restrain themselves to less fussy production and muted sounds. More surprising? The power tools you hear on Minor Slip were all arranged by his hand alone (though, his bandmates in guitarists Nick Logie and Dylan Freeman, bassist Dane Meyer, and drummer Marcos Plata lent their hands during recording the album properly.) If you desire a range of realism within your shoegaze immersion, Manson gives it to you in rich sonic detail.

Sound: The sound of the collapse of the universe in high def.

Recommended: “Lip”, “Breaker”, and “Foam” from his recently-released sophomore album, Minor Slip

Fall Tour Dates:

Shaki Tavi’s Minor Slip will be released August 15th on Felte Records.