Man Power

Initially it felt fairly easy to pin down the Man Power project when it started off in 2014

with a bunch of growling slo mo techno records on the likes of Correspondant, Hivern

Discs and Infiné. However in the intervening decade we’ve seen Geoff Kirkwood

continually confound expectations, whether it be via releasing Disco and Italo records

(Stamp / SKINT / Eskimo), Detroit leaning Techno (Sound As, DFA, Ene Japan), straight-

up House Music (Rekids, Make A Dance, ESP Institute) or, more often than not, weirdo

mutations of all of those sounds and more on an impressively wide range of big and

small labels. All of this is before even considering his Techno Alias MPX, his two

Experimental Ambient albums as Bedwetter, and his creation of a full blown Orchestral

Symphony with the Royal Northern Sinfonia.

Since the very start of the project, Man Power has been found applying this mercurial

method regularly as a DJ at clubs and festivals across the world ranging from the candy

coloured excesses of Burning Man Festival, to the lights-off mystery of Panorama Bar,

and all points in-between. Making appearances at everything from institutions like

Glastonbury, Rex Club Paris, Love International, Nitsa Barcelona, Vent Tokyo, Hi Ibiza

and Elsewhere Brooklyn, to countless nameless warehouses, pub-raves, pop-ups and

guerrilla parties across the UK, Europe, Central & South East Asia, The USA and Latin

America.

In many ways it feels as though it’s taken the last 10 years just for Kirkwood to be able to

get some way towards revealing the full scope of his musical breadth both as a

producer and as a DJ, but despite the somewhat open-ended approach to genre it’s still

possible to pick out common threads in his choices. Throughout the Man Power project

there has always been an openly earnest and emotive undercurrent that is often

tempered by a contrary tendency towards the arch or absurd, and while cinematic

sonics and narrative indulgences are frequent motifs, they often rub shoulders with a

raw, direct and unpretentious approach that arguably borders on the naïve.

At the heart of it all, whether making music, playing music, releasing other people’s

music via his Me Me Me label, or throwing parties around the world, the Man Power

project is simply an example of a person trying to authentically explore the full extent of

their creative self, and doing so in way that may not be for everyone, but which can be

deeply meaningful and compelling to other people who feel the same way.