After recently signing with us here at Houndstooth, producer On Man whose previous collaborations include Giggs, Darq E Freaker, Zebra Katz and Mr Hudson amongst others, has today announced his debut self-titled album is due July 15th and is sharing new single & video "Memento Mori", featuring vocalist Tailor.

With roots in hip hop, pop and electronica On Man uses these sonic foundations as tools to carve a new space filled with corroded, cinematic left-field pop that explores themes of love, grief, and rediscovery and new single "Memento Mori" is the latest example of this, following on from recent single "Squares and Triangles".

"Memento Mori' started life as a kind of bittersweet, romantic song about coming to terms with a break-up. But, when my mum unexpectedly died, I revisited the lyrics and, although the words were the same, it now had this parallel narrative for me: How might I had felt had I known she was going to die? Would I have made more of an effort to make amends in the remaining time we had?"

"We’re secretly watching a couple in this strange domestic space, floating within a limbo-like void. Grief shapes us. Mutates us. We can speak of it, releasing its power a bit, or we can keep silent, until we have mutated into something else entirely. The characters have slowly changed in this limbo; they’ve forgotten who they were, what they were. They’ve developed this physicality and these coping movements that, to them, feel natural and essential but, to us as voyeurs, seem totally strange. The space itself has also morphed and mutated to reflect what’s going on with the characters."

"It was such a pleasure to work with the actors, Hebe Beardsall and Jethro Skinner on this. It was a single-take shot and we only had three versions of the prosthetics (that get destroyed within the filming process), so they had to be incredibly precise with their choreography. Fortunately they nailed it on the third take!"

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On Man’s creative roots lie deep. An artist with a unique gift for sound design, he’s able to conjure perfect pop songs and then corrode them, revealing the emotional truths underneath. An electronic artist with a human touch, he’s worked in the studio for an array of other artists, as well as delivering huge cinematic soundtrack projects, all while pursuing his own solitary agenda.

On Man’s eponymous debut album is his graduation point, a record framed by grief, the loss of identity, and the process of rediscovery. Challenging and rewarding in equal measure, it’s a revelatory listen. “It’s all been leading up to this point,” he explains. “I feel completely confident in this project. Before, there’d always been an element of me that was unsure… but not now.”

Working from his home studio in Hertfordshire, On Man has patiently developed his sound, assembling a unique creative cosmology in the process. As a child, he grew up surrounded by the sounds of his mother’s record collection, vintage pop from the Beach Boys, Michael Jackson, and the Pet Shop Boys. Diving into alt rock as a teen, his adolescence was spent pouring over record sleeves by PJ Harvey and Sonic Youth, before developing a thirst for electronic abstraction. “Making noise beautiful really appeals to me,” he smiles.

At its core, however, On Man is about connection. As left-field as some of his sonic impulses are, the producer wants to sculpt something melodic and open. “I just love good pop songs!” he exclaims. “The simple ones about love are the ones I’ve connected with.”

Buy / Stream

On Man - On Man (The Album Sampler - 15.07.22)

We are excited to introduce you to London-based producer On Man, a musician whose previous collaborations include Giggs, Darq E Freaker, Zebra Katz and Mr Hudson amongst others.

More info: https://hth.lnk.to/OnMan

Squares and Triangles features fellow London-based rapper F-M-M-F alongside this video directed by Ian Roderick Gray (The Banksy Job).


“Squares and Triangles was a turning point for the project - the first track I finished where I felt like things were heading in the right direction. F-M-M-F’s fantastic vocals hooked me straight away. They read almost like a film, exploring the tension of a doomed relationship when incompatible edges collide, crack and crumble amongst the lies.”


On Man’s creative roots lie deep. An artist with a unique gift for sound design, he’s able to conjure perfect pop songs and then corrode them, revealing the emotional truths underneath. An electronic artist with a human touch, he’s worked in the studio for an array of other artists, as well as delivering huge cinematic soundtrack projects, all while pursuing his own solitary agenda. "Squares and Triangles" marks the first step of this personal journey and more will follow later this year.


Lyrics:

You said it from the start
We’re more than a mile apart
Call me animal
Still looking for Noah’s ark
Call me a cannibal
Then I left a hole in your heart
Hole in your heart when I
Left my phone in your car
You’re like a loan shark
Once you let go of the past
I swear it’s been about a year
Guess my roly’s fast
Heartbreak will send a woman wild
And now some little dick is 
Gonna make her smile
Now it’s just me myself
And the only eye
Got my head doing circles
I guess it’s only pi
No apology from here
Coz I ain’t liable
How could you go and find a square
And make a triangle?

You drive me round the bend whether
Automatic or manual
Upside down my
World’s feeling satanical
Text messages
Scriptures and parables
So many hate your
Shit is getting casual
Not to call you liar
I’m the person that fired you
Man slaughter killed it
But I was trying to 
Heartbreak will send a woman wild
And now some little mug is 
Gonna make her smile
Overreacting like there ain’t other guys
That lost their composure and told
A couple of lies
No apologies here
Coz I ain’t liable
How could you go and find a square
And make a triangle


Artist - Follow: On Man
https://www.thisisonman.com

Label - Follow: Houndstooth
https://linktr.ee/houndstooth

Squares And Triangles

Squares And Triangles (feat. F-M-M-F)

MORE INFO

On Man - Squares And Triangles (feat. F-M-M-F)

We're pleased to introduce you to London-based producer On Man, a musician whose previous collaborations include Giggs, Darq E Freaker, Zebra Katz and Mr Hudson amongst others.

The original 'Squares and Triangles features fellow London-based rapper F-M-M-F' and now we have Ninja Tune's insanely good producer 'The Bug' on remix duties.


"Pure, physical heaviness - that’s what I wanted with the Squares and Triangles remix, and that’s why I was so excited that The Bug agreed to take on the track. It was a deep, dark track already but he's grabbed it and submerged it down into the abyss in a way that only he can. I’ve been a big fan ever since London Zoo, and I love all of his other projects, so it’s an honour to have him jump on board." ~ On Man


"What attracted me to remixing 'Squares & Triangles' was the sense of mystery. I had never heard of the artist On Man, nor the MC F-M-M-F, and so i had no preconceptions nor obstacles. I loved the fact the vocals provided more questions than answers. And as a fellow freak, in a time where so much music is made to fit blandly into a conformist box, I totally admired the fact this song existed in its own, uncommercial, non-aligned zone.
I just knew as soon as i heard the original, i instantly dug the ice-cold mood and felt I wanted to make it both heavier and deeper simultaneously." ~ The Bug


"F-M-M-F's twisted verbals were hyper-tense and psychotic, so the challenge was to try and intensify the deadly narrative of the lyrics still further... So i opted for max brutality, absolute minimalism, and a relentless groove to carry the crushing weight and add to the sense of danger and drama." ~ The Bug 
lyrics
You said it from the start
We’re more than a mile apart
Call me animal
Still looking for Noah’s ark
Call me a cannibal
Then I left a hole in your heart
Hole in your heart when I
Left my phone in your car
You’re like a loan shark
Once you let go of the past
I swear it’s been about a year
Guess my roly’s fast
Heartbreak will send a woman wild
And now some little dick is
Gonna make her smile
Now it’s just me myself
And the only eye
Got my head doing circles
I guess it’s only pi
No apology from here
Coz I ain’t liable
How could you go and find a square
And make a triangle?


You drive me round the bend whether
Automatic or manual
Upside down my
World’s feeling satanical
Text messages
Scriptures and parables
So many hate your
Shit is getting casual
Not to call you liar
I’m the person that fired you
Man slaughter killed it
But I was trying to
Heartbreak will send a woman wild
And now some little mug is
Gonna make her smile
Overreacting like there ain’t other guys
That lost their composure and told
A couple of lies
No apologies here
Coz I ain’t liable
How could you go and find a square
And make a triangle

Buy single or stream

On Man - Squares And Triangles (The Bug Remix)

On Man - Memento Mori

@thisisonman On Man - "Worse Than It Seems", taken from the debut album 'On Man', out on 15th July 2022.

Watch the incredible official version - extended version on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x3Zoz4-WVE

Stream more songs from the debut album: https://hth.lnk.to/OnMan

Follow On Man:
Website: https://www.thisisonman.com
Facebook: https://smarturl.it/OnManFB
Twitter: https://smarturl.it/OnManTW
Instagram: https://smarturl.it/OnManIG
TikTok: https://smarturl.it/OnManTT

Follow Houndstooth:
https://linktr.ee/houndstooth

LYRICS

Outside i know
Another part of me
That can let go
A separate stream

Inside i hold
I tense at what i see
Inside i fold
And split apart the seams

Have we lost our motion
Have we lost our soul
Have we lost all our control
Or is it worse than it seems

Are we in contortion
Are we out of mode
Have we lost all our control
Or is it worse than it seems

Outside I hope
That you’re not alone
That it’s sober in the end
That it’s sober in the end

On Man

Worse Than It Seems

On Man - Worse Than It Seems

With his debut self-titled album due July 15th, On Man (@thisisonman) has shared a new single from his record, titled "United (Why Can't We Say Enough)". The track comes alongside a video starring actress and musician Keeley Forsyth (@keeley-forsyth). 

Speaking about the track, On Man said "I wrote 'United (Why Can't We Say Enough)' with Tailor as a kind of unspoken dialogue between two people as they find themselves in a position they never expected, both of them trying - and failing - to communicate, the same question repeating over and over again.  

I took that theme and ran with it for the video, where we find two people trapped in a space, trying to figure out how and why they got there, connected - united - through violence, love, history, blood."

On the video, (https://youtu.be/mpJtX_iKjWo) he added "I was so happy that Keeley Forsyth agreed to star in the video as I knew she would bring her incredible intensity to the role and she was a dream to direct. I'm also a huge fan of her music, so it was an honour to have her on board. The video was filmed in one take in an ex meat-packing warehouse in Kings Cross, which was painfully freezing, so we were glad it was a short shoot!"

United (Why Can't We Say Enough)

On Man - United (Why Can't We Say Enough)

UK record label based at fabric, East London. Run in part by Rob Booth (Electronic Explorations)