Bleep

Manbait is the culmination of the work from the figurehead in the central shadows of the caustic world of gothic high rise blocks and techno-rooted post-punk apartments built up around the Blackest Ever Black label over the past five years. That figurehead is none other than the near-mythical producer Karl O'Connor aka Regis. Having left his fingerprints all over the label's identity from his debut on the label's second release, the bar-raising 'version' of Raime's This Foundry which took the original's bone dry drums and the track's tense chilling spine and updated it with a subtle nod to the soon-to-be departed Sandwell District's pension for towering atmospherics and 7 am warehouse reduction. On Manbait we find the various incarnations of the Regis project and its umbrella reach of different guises, here we find the Regis that remodelled Ike Yard's no-wave track 'Loss' moving it from NYC's first and only Factory Record to downtown Berlin Factory minimalism, his lovesick grandeur of Dalhous and an alternative mix from the debut LP recordings from death-disco post-punk group Tropic Of Cancer. Topped off with the highly sought after remix of Vatican Shadow (which was a pivotal moment in the post-techno / techn-oise vanguard) and previously unreleased mixes of tracks from O'Conor's personal vaults 'Manbait (Regis Version)' and an array of visions of the breakbeat led Blood Witness this compilation flows remarkably well as a stand alone piece of music from the originator of post-punk techno. Manbait is a celebration of this most singular of artists, constantly evolving and refining his art, truly blood into gold.