Nosy Mangabe
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Nosy Mangabe

Boston, MA | Established. Jan 01, 2011 | SELF

Boston, MA | SELF
Established on Jan, 2011
Band Pop Jazz

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Music

Press


"Nosy Mangabe - The Lemonatti"

"Self-described as a “progressive folk-jazz” and “whimsy-pop” group, Nosy Mangabe sounds like it could be the lovechild of bands She & Him and Of Montreal. This does not mean the band isn’t original, though. Their EP, The Lemonatti, combines a unique mixture of modern and vintage sounds, ukulele and synth, and harmony and solo.

The opening song, “Universe and Chorus,” begins with the soft strums of a ukulele. This, coupled with the bell-like sounds of a glockenspiel, gives off a slight tropical undertone – which is suiting, considering the band borrows their name from a tropical island off the coast of Madagascar. The vocals, soft yet dominant, are occasionally accented by a countermelody. The song then ends with distorted vocals and distinctly spacey sounds effects.

“Craig” sounds like a song you could listen to while strolling down Main Street in Disneyland. The song stands out with its use of trombone and quick interjectory male vocals not present anywhere else in the EP. The lyrics, at times utterly cynical (“I’ve found that I’ve fallen into to despair”), contrast sharply with the song’s playful, cheery melody.

The Lemonatti would be the perfect addition to any pop-lover’s spring playlist. You can listen to this witty, whimsical album for free on their bandcamp." - Rare Candy New York Music Magazine


"Top 50 South Florida Songs of 2011"

Shameless nerds or blissfully unaware of their nerdom (in which case, sorry), the Anthropologists of Nosy Mangabe are a promising baroque pop quintet. Having released a few singles that showcase a refined musical background, ANM toe a dangerous line between cute technicality and sophisticated novelty pop. Bands like Ra Ra Riot and The Dirty Projectors (you can make a case for Amanda Palmer’s vaudevillian style) have proven there’s room for classicism in modern pop and indie rock, so it will be interesting to see just how creative ANM can get. - Beached Miami


"Top 50 South Florida Songs of 2012"

The Anthropologists returned in 2012 with a few more adorably upbeat, well-arranged singles, including “Universe and Chorus”, which introduces a modern bend to the seven-piece band’s cabaret pop stylings. Compliments to producer Rodrigo Delgado for giving traditional vaudevillian pop and Kaitlin Freemont Pelkey’s anachronistically beautiful pipes a fresher frame with small injections of electronica. - Beached Miami


"Anthropologist of Nosy Mangabe, Miami Folk Group, Gets Naked for Audio Junkie"

Musicians are not morning people. In fact, some aren't even early afternoon people, like Andres Ramos of Miami folk ensemble the Anthropologist of Nosy Mangabe.

"Can I call you back in no more than 15 minutes," Ramos asks. "I'm just sitting down to have breakfast and I'm not that articulate with food in my mouth."

It's 1:30 p.m. and we've been trying to get Ramos on the phone since 9 a.m. To his credit, however, he does call back about a half-hour later, greeting us with a humorous, "Top of the morning to you."

His antiquated greeting is a reflection of the Anthropologist of Nosy Mangabe's octogenarian musical styling, both enduring and rather endearing. With its delightfully harmonic structures and bright melodies, this band's songs stay true to its traditional roots.

However, Ramos is well aware that his group's old-timey brand is a tough pill to swallow for some, admitting that his music isn't "necessarily going to catch on like wildfire." But he hopes that "it gains just enough street cred" for people to take notice.

"There's a lot of great stuff, and I'm not just referring to my band. I'm talking about true old-time music. There's some really fantastic stuff that should not be lost merely because it happened yesterday."

In an effort to expose new audiences to old-timey music, the Anthropologist plays free gigs -- like one on June 29 at Blue Piano Music Lounge and Wine Bar -- and get naked.
Currently, Ramos is promoting his band's forthcoming Audio Junkie documentary, a film that follows the Anthropologist of Nosy Mangabe to a North Palm Beach nudist community where the group performed a free concert.

"You don't want to seem like the creep who shows to fill them. It's got to be an immersive thing," says Ramos, explaining why he and his bandmates shed their clothes for the performance.

According to him, the band is consistently trying to break away from the "wallpaper boringness" of everyday life.

"I have to say, a nudist colony is an extremely surrealistic experience," he says. "To a certain degree, after the first time I went, I almost felt that I was on a sort of psychedelic. Everything that you know about reality has changed."

The film premieres on July 4 at O Cinema, a significant day for both our country and the Anthropologist of Nosy Mangabe. "That's the day we got our independence from the British and we get our independence from our clothes," Ramos quips. "And maybe our dignity." - Miami New Times


"Photo Recap: Weird Folk Fest @ Magnolia Loft – Jan 23rd"

On one snowy winter night, an impressive crowd gathered at JP’s Magnolia Loft. Those who braved the weather were treated to a gem of a show at the third edition of Weird Folk Fest. All four bands fall loosely under “folk music” but that’s just the starting point. The sources of these weird sounds were several ukuleles, a few upright basses, a trombone, a harp, and others. Local act Nosy Mangabe performed and hosted, and they’ll be hosting Weird Folk Fest’s 4th installment on February 21 at Out The Blue Too. - Allston Pudding


Discography

The Lemonatti 

(released June 2013)
  1. Universe and Chorus
  2. Mr. Wright
  3. First Date 
  4. Craig 
  5. La Vie en Rope

Singles: 

  1. Single and Ready to Jingle (January 2015)
  2. Unstitched (August 2015)

Photos

Bio

Nosy Mangabe (NOH-zee MAIN-gah-bee)

Nosy Mangabe is a whimsy-pop, bubblegum-jazz-folk ensemble, that, contrary to what it's genre markers would indicate, is not sponsored by any concession-stand food manufacturers. 

In June 2013, we released our debut EP "The Lemonatti", which "sounds like it could be the lovechild of bands She & Him and Of Montreal" according to New York music magazine, Rare Candy. This EP serves as a departure from our fundamentally folkish roots and an
adventure into a glitch-laden glittering sonic landscape bubbling over
with synths and electronic gems, that would soon become Nosy Mangabe's
recording trademark.

The next few years were peppered with the releases
of "Single and Ready to Jingle" in January 2015 and another single released this past August called "Unstiched", written as part of the score for the indie film "Alterations" written and directed by Miami-based film maker Juan-Carlos Zaldivar. We are currently in the midst of recording our second EP "France with Benefits" (title pending), which we plan to release in the winter of 2015 and will be the first part of a dual EP set.

Aside from recording, we have also been consistently performing our original music live, playing such esteemed venues as The Bitter End in New York, The Berklee Performance Center in Boston, as well as venturing past our borders on our Yes We Canada tour this past summer and our No More Mister Ice Guy tour this past spring. A full list of past performance venues can be found here.

Our Sound?

Integral to Nosy Mangabe's aural DNA is a double helix of twisted ukulele melodies that grapple and slither over each other like serpentine, Greco-Roman wrestlers, cheered on by an intertwining sonic braid of harmonies and the occasional sparkle of a glockenspiel. Though a failure as a contraceptive, the rhythm method is a fantastic way to keep a beat, and we keep ours going with an air-tight rhythm section consisting of piano, bass, guitar, and drums. 

Featuring seven members in our ranks, our numbers have been rising steadily over the past few years, and, soon, the amount of members in the band may dwarf the population of the island from which we took our namesake.

Our Nosy Mangabeginnings...

Though currently based out of Boston, we were born of humble and humid origins in Miami -- our music, perhaps, an attempt to inject a dose of whimsy and reserved wit to a scene often mischaracterized as a flurry of raw hedonism garnished with braggadocio.  

The art we create arose from a romance with the absurd, and gleaned inspiration from the mutterings of the vagabonds along the skeleton of a once-thriving neighborhood, the carcasses of Santeria sacrifices (littered about in a display of macabre optimism towards the notion that the Gods accept chickens as currency), or the gleam of a gator's tooth, glistening beneath the blue of a Suburban Swimming Pool.  

For the past five years, we've burnt through the midnight oil, mining for melodies and shaking down the muses at the onset of a nascent night, and practicing until it died, leaving us in morning.

Band Members