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Dark Matters

by MANEKA

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    Pressed on Black vinyl and limited to 300 copies worldwide. Includes lyric insert.

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    Pro-dubbed and housed in a cassette case with full color j-card. Limited to 100 copies

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  • T-Shirt/Shirt

    Designed by Dan Levine and embroidered with orange, pink, white, and blue thread on 100% acrylic knit beanies.
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1.
2.
Zipline 03:35
I said my prayers to the moon. Bathing in the light of it Is how I cleanse myself I see the same light in you. Whatever that means to you Is how I tell myself, "No one's gonna stop me" "No one's gonna stop me now." It was at some point in June I showed you my alien tattoo. I think I'm starting to make some headway with you. I made a zipline to you. A perfect trajectory, Measured it myself. They're never gonna stop us Never gonna stop us now.
3.
I seen you in the same clothes In the same club Different make up. Seems like you got a tape up, A fade cut. Seen you outside the bank, trust. Never ever heard you thank us, But that's ok Cuz Like magic on the Lakers You paved the way for us Hood famous. Paved the way for us Hood famous. Never asked for it But you know now. Paved the way for us German hood famous. Wipe that white shit off Of your face lil nigga. Don't paint a smile in the place where that shame hid. You not that same kid. Play that brand new shit That No. 9 shit homie. You the dope lil homie... And you don't even know it. it's about pride in the fact that you shine on em. Hey man! I'll tell my story I've been patient. After all these hours of enduring I feel I can't see all my elders in me. (Jordyn) Strive to blend. You thrive instead of seeking truth. In a sense I'm exactly where I'm meant to be in the center of this winner's circle.
4.
5.
The Glow Up 03:50
I was 7 years old And their jaws was on the floor, With their pale white eyes And their deafening silence Was there. I was there, were you? You'll never know Just how it feels To stare back When you stare at me OOOOO oooooo Black skin over porcelain plates Oh my dear When the gold chain shines And the watch got diamonds. It sells. Oh it sells to you. (chorus) And how do you explain this? The seat in the back is meant for me? And how do you explain this? The ones we lost hanging from the trees. They don't want to see you shine. Soon you'll see those white hoods Knocking at my door. When they see you shine They don't want nothin more Than to see you shuffle and mopping up the floor. But when they see the glow up We runnin up the score. The irony of this chain is, it's the one that make a nigga free The iront of this chain is, it's the one that make a nigga free.
6.
Runaway 03:25
i don't know anyone outside this fenced in yard but anyway i do feel there's something new. i'll take the back roads. tell my cousin i'm comin through. doesn't anyone want to? You feel it too don't you? stored in your bones is the feeling you won't survive here and for 5 centuries you would have been right to flee this town before Sundown it happens to anyone brown as a backwood and proud like we were last sunday. hear the voice Say run away. I don’t show But I got this feeling Somethings coming To take It all away Recount my money No way I’m gonna let y’all Do me like my daddy That Georgia May Had me running For days Had me searchin For a way. Stored in your bones Is the feeling You don’t Belong here.
7.
On Her Own 03:13
If I see her face, I'll make it worse. When she asked for her name, I told the nurse, Cecilia. She'll make it on her own Cuz I know what it feels like. The ceilings made of stone, But even that breaks. I can't see her face Can't describe the hurt. In some 60 years She'll say my name, Mary. (chorus) You came running full circle Always end up meeting you this way This way I'll see it through.
8.
9.
Maintain 03:32
But you wanna cross Cross that bridge again. The world is gonna end But I pretend, Everything in life's about the simple pleasure of Falling asleep and waking up Again. You're so cool. Just reminding you. You've gotta maintain. Time is like an oozing blister Before it heals. And forms again. We're already dead So I kissed her on her head In the meantime. I talk myself down on a trip to the corner store, yea. In my true form anyway, All alone here We saw this day on it's way.
10.
Bluest Star 03:40
I touched the fiber glass And then I rubbed my eyes. I saw the cars outside so I went inside. I saw Blue Star. On your star The sun is basking in my back sweat. My voice lost In the void. It's where you stayed. The bed you made. I bet it smells Just like your cellmate. I was the one who walked away And made it out. I grew a rocket and some wings And I drew a crowd, Without you. (chorus x2) It's where you stayed. The bed you made. I bet it smells Just like your cellmate. I hope you found some bitter solace At least I have This ol' guitar. (put it back where you found it man I still take those today)

about

Devin McKnight makes music to be understood. With Maneka, his wildly adventurous songwriting project, the Brooklyn-based indie rock artist has consistently and thoughtfully explored the fringes of identity. As a Black man, he writes songs that resiliently navigate the anxiety of being a minority in largely white spaces, offering solidarity to outsiders everywhere and firm defiance against a regressive status quo. On Dark Matters, the masterful second Maneka album out March 11, 2022 via Skeletal Lightning, McKnight is at his most clear-eyed and searching. Across 10 tracks, McKnight asks uncomfortable questions about himself and America’s dark past all while scraping the edges of what guitar music can be. Kinetic, unpredictable, and totally resonant, this LP is a triumphant window into McKnight’s vision.

Maneka started as an outlet for McKnight to immerse himself in producing his own music after several stints as a sideman touring with other bands. “I had this big idea to be forging ahead with creating a space for black people in rock music,” says McKnight. His first effort 2017’s Is You Is EP was abrasive, scrappy, and endlessly listenable complete with songs about The O.C. and an outro featuring his parents talking about their childhood growing up in segregated America. This juxtaposition of McKnight’s own personality and upbringing against years of generational trauma, gentrification, and injustice served as the backdrop for his explosive 2019 debut LP Devin. Earning praise for Bandcamp and Afropunk, the album solidified McKnight as one of the most essential voices in rock music.

Dark Matters is the result of McKnight’s hard-earned confidence as a frontman and lyricist. “The first record maybe it was a little bit of that like I was afraid to really show all my cards and the second one I got to dig a little deeper, but this one feels like it’s what I’ve truly been going for,” says McKnight. Where Devin honed in on overt things that McKnight was experiencing, he approached this record with a bird’s eye view drawing from subjects as big picture as American history and even the cosmos. “There's a lot about being a racial minority in this country, in general, that kind of ends up in the cracks,” says McKnight. “There are stories that get literally thrown out or explained away or hurt too much to talk about: the Tulsa massacre, sundown towns, etc.” Though these historical realities are tossed aside for sanitized narratives, there’s power and necessity in their retelling.

As McKnight learned more about the largely forgotten horrors of American racism, he battled insomnia and took to binging space documentaries on streaming services to calm his brain. During a film on Dark Matter, McKnight had a revelation. “With dark matter, it’s there but it’s not: Just like our history with race,” says McKnight. “A lot of people are aware of its existence, but you can't touch it. You can't smell it. But it's among us. America has this really dark energy. How has it been this fucked up for this long and no one's done anything about it?” This question is the foundation of these 10 tracks, songs that sometimes violently shift in tone like the piercing, synth-heavy intro track, the cinematic “Maintain” or the gauzy “Zipline.”

The first song he wrote for Dark Matters is the single“The Glow Up.” Over hypnotically pummeling guitars, McKnight sings, “And how do you explain this? / The seat in the back is meant for me? / And how do you explain this? / The ones we lost hanging from the trees / They don't want to see you shine.” The soaring track takes just as many cues from Duster and Alex G as it does Young Thug.“ Even if you have wealth or a good family, the racist culture just knocks you back down a peg,” says McKnight. “Every black person I know has a story like this somewhere. It's infuriating because it set us back generations. I wanted to juxtapose vague sad boy rock with themes that are actually worth being sad about.” On the quiet stunner “Runaway,” delicate acoustic guitars anchor McKnight singing, “and for five centuries / you would have been right / to flee this town before / Sundown.”

McKnight explains, “I wanted to introduce the idea of indie rock fused with gaudy bejeweled blackness. We’re not ashamed of our success, we’re flaunting it.“ On Dark Matters highlight “Winner’s Circle,” he playfully toys with this and the radical idea that Beethoven was actually
Black. He raps, imagining telling him: “Play that brand new shit / That No. 9 shit homie. / You the dope lil homie / And you don't even know it. / It's about pride in the fact that you shine on em” over dirge-like bass and synths. “I don't care whether or not it's true whether Beethoven was Black or not but if it’s true, he wore a white face to fit in so that people wouldn't know that he had a darker complexion,” says McKnight. “This is me confronting that: I was just talking to Beethoven as if he's just some dude from around the way that I recognize and telling him to be proud of who you are.”

On Dark Matters, the record sounds fantastic. Engineered and mixed by longtime friend and collaborator, Mike Thomas as well as mastered by Beauty Pill’s Chad Clark, the record boasts his longtime drummer Jordan Blakely, as well as a wealth of collaborators like V.V. Lightbody and Chicago polymath NNAMDÏ, who drums on two standout jazz freakouts “Jazz with Nnamdi.” Closer “Bluest Star,” sums up a record with a bitter and nostalgic look at a lost friend. “Blue Stars are stars that get so big and so hot they burn out really fast and they also suck the energy out of all the other stars around them,” says McKnight. Over frenetic guitars, he sings a kiss-off: I was the one who walked away / And made it out. / I grew a rocket and some wings / And I drew a crowd without you.”

This statement of defiance and strength against adversity is the main thread of Dark Matters. “Learning about this history made me think a little bit more about how much I didn't know about myself and where I come from,” says McKnight. “Trying to place myself in this history and my own place in the universe was what I was trying to accomplish with this record. These lyrics are way more personal even if they're talking about these things from the past.”
- Josh Terry

credits

released March 11, 2022

All music and lyrics written by Devin McKnight

All songs Engineered and Mixed by Michael John Thomas III

All songs Mastered by Chad Clark

"Runaway" engineered by Devin McKnight

Jazz tracks mixed and produced by Devin McKnight

Vocal Harmonies provided by Nicola Leel on "The Glow Up"

Vocals provided by Jordyn Blakely on "Winner's Circle", "On Her Own", "Maintain"

Drum Performance provided by Jordyn Blakely on all songs (except Nnamdi tracks)

Drum Performance provided by Nnamdi Ogbonnaya on "Jazz with Nnamdi (Brunch Special)" and "Jazz with Nnamdi (Cocktail hour)"

Cello Performance provided by JB Fulbright on "Runaway"

Keyboard/Synth performed by Michael John Thomas III on "Zipline", "On her Own", "Bluest Star"

Keyboard/Synth written and performed by Devin McKnight on "Winner's Circle", "The Glow Up", and "Dark Matters Intro"

Flute performance provided by Vivian McConnell on "Zipline"

Album Art and Layout designed by K Nkanza

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