by John Patterson
Manring is a master of innovation and way crazy funk fun on the bass. He slaps his Zon bass silly, samples, loops, E-Bows, processes, and ultra-sustains his songs into a universe all his own. On Manring's The Book of Flame, all the stops are pulled out and a real beast is unleashed. His live, unedited, no overdub pieces are still a standard as well as his warped 'n' manipulated creations. Manring is funkified, burpin' bass joy with that telltale horn sound lead. He shifts from a tar pit stomp lethargy to a toe-tappin' alley cat strut in a heartbeat. He can be heard doing guitarish leads that flow right into a Stanley Clarke groove. &Dromedary& is high octane enough in spots to peel paint or melt the annuli off your woofers. The live studio piece &No Wontons for Elvis& has a Michael Hedges Live on the Double Planet feel, as if Hedges were playing through Manring. Finally, the pandemonium calms down on &The Book of Living and Dying& (in memoriam for Michael Hedges, 1953-1997) and outros into memories and silence.