Man Sized Creature

Genre-busting psy-folk duo Man Sized Creature to release debut EP ‘Through The Air And The Leaves’ on via Irregular Patterns on 12th April.

Boldly unreserved, ‘Through The Air And The Leaves’ is an 18-minute long foray through raucous breakcore, trippy ambience, guitars warped beyond repair, and evocative lyricism pulling the listener far into an ethereal dreamscape before bringing them back at the end with a soft acoustic ballad. Producers Sam Judd and Felix Jupiter handle far-out electronics with a deep sense of organicism in an inaugural record that is playful, subversive and deeply introspective all at once.

Photo: (Man Sized Creature 2023)

Man Sized Creature is the latest musical adventure from singer Felix Jupiter and producer Sam Judd. The trippy folktronica project started in a cabin during 2020’s covid lockdown, and that was where it remained for over two years. “We originally wrote only two or three songs, but events transpired such that we ended up letting the project simmer for what seemed like a really long time”.

Both prolific multi-medium artists in their own right, the duo continued to revisit the songs that would eventually become ‘Through The Air And The Leaves’ over the months that followed. Pretty soon, an entire parallel reality emerged around the music through its visual elements; a neolithic dreamscape of strange languages and summery haze. The unusual synergy between Jupiter’s background as a visual artist and singer-songwriter, and Judd’s as a dance music producer, manifested with a slew of creative experiments. The result? Songs that venture from delicate folk into drum & bass in the space of a minute, and a vibrant debut record that pushes multiple mediums into exciting new territories.

“You can hear the process of us maturing in this music. We were 19 years old when the initial elements of these songs came together. Now we’re 23, and our perspective on art, and the world, has totally changed. A lot has happened over the course of this project – Felix moved to The Netherlands for two years and came back – it has been an opportunity to create something that visits the same essential themes from multiple perspectives simultaneously.”

A launch concert is set for April 29th at Studio 18 in their hometown of Stroud, followed by a trip around the 2023 festival circuit.

Man Sized Creature – Full Bio

Man Sized Creature is the latest musical adventure from singer-songwriter Felix Jupiter and producer Sam Judd. The trippy folktronica project started in a cabin during 2020’s covid lockdown, and that was where it remained for over two years. “We originally wrote only two or three songs, but events transpired such that we ended up letting the project simmer for what seemed like a really long time”. The duo continued to revisit the songs that would eventually become ‘Through The Air And The Leaves’ over the months that followed. Soon, an entire parallel reality emerged around the music through its visual elements; a neolithic dreamscape of strange languages and summery haze.

The duo write and produce together from their hometown in Stroud, England. The unusual synergy between Jupiter’s background as singer-songwriter and visual artist, and Judd’s as a dance music producer, manifested with a slew of creative experiments. The result? Songs that venture from straight-up folk into drum & bass in the space of a minute, and works that push multiple mediums into interesting new territories.

Photos: (Man Sized Creature 2023)

A foundational element of their process is the creation of parallel narratives to accompany the music. Felix, who takes the lead on vocals, is known for his noisy experimental folk music, as well as an expansive body of work as a visual and performance artist. In the case of MSC’s music videos, he found himself inventing runic languages from scratch and blending film with hand-drawn animations. Sam, who plays guitar and leads the production, is rather uncomfortable with sitting in one place: his track record spans an unusual range, from producing hip-hop and UK garage to performing with folk singers, jazz bands and the JSSO Project. This broad starting point resulted in music that seems equally designed for an upbeat festival tent as it does for reclined headphone listening.

“We both grew up in the Cotswolds, and the local landscape has a massive impact on what we create. It’s visible everywhere in the artwork and videos, and it definitely comes through in the more organic, folky elements of our music. Most of our work has been created in wooden cabins overlooking the Stroud valley – which led to its rhythms and energy being deeply embedded in the songs.”

The hilly landscape of the Cotswolds took on an extra significance for Felix during 2020-2022, when he was living in the Netherlands. It was there that he enlisted the help of Cologne-based breakcore/noise producer D:ma to create some of the elements that would later be used in the EP’s longest track ‘Break Yourself Down’. “B.Y.D. mostly came about via a constant process of us remixing and re-remixing the same few stems, which didn’t sound particularly interesting on their own. But we had the chance to explore so many musical contexts through that process, and eventually they condensed into something we actually wanted to listen to.”

Photo: screen-grab from The Man Sized Creature video (Man Sized Creature 2023)

‘Through The Air And The Leaves’ was finished during the summer of 2022, in between Judd touring festivals with JSSO Project and Jupiter’s solo shows at Glastonbury and several independent record stores. Two music videos were shot, both undergoing a detailed stylisation process that involved printing individual video frames onto paper and animating them with white ink. The first video, for their ambient debut single ‘The Man Sized Creature’, depicted the band wandering trancelike through a Wiltshire crop circle, moon rising in the background. The second, for ‘Forest Fire’, features Jupiter being absorbed by a tree, arms painted with pseudo-runic languages.

“You can hear the process of us maturing in this music. We were 19 years old when the initial elements of these songs came together. Now we’re 23, and our perspective on art, and the world, has totally changed. A lot has happened over the course of this project – Felix moved to The Netherlands for two years and came back – it has been an opportunity to create something that visits the same essential ideas from multiple perspectives simultaneously.”

Photos: Album artwork for ‘Forest Fire’ and ‘Break Yourself Down’ singles (Man Sized Creature 2023)

An EP launch concert is taking place on April 29th, at Studio 18 in Stroud. Next up for Man Sized Creature is a trip around the 2023 festival circuit, followed by the recording of a follow-up record.

Photo: (Man Sized Creature 2023)