Mandruvá Turns D.R.A.M.A. into a Psychedelic Ceremony on THISBE Recordings
Electronic music has always borrowed from the language of ritual. Repetition, collective movement, trance and altered states are hardly exclusive to the modern nightclub. What changes is the technology through which those impulses are expressed. On D.R.A.M.A., Brazilian artist Murillo Faleiros, better known as Mandruvá, approaches this ancient relationship through a distinctly contemporary combination of deep percussion, psychedelic textures and acid-inflected electronics.
Released on THISBE Recordings, the EP takes its name from the ancient Greek tradition of drama and its association with Dionysus, whose mythology connected celebration, theatre and ritual madness. It is a suitably open-ended concept for a producer whose music often seems to exist between recognisable categories.
Mandruvá's sound is built around contrast.
The organic sits alongside the synthetic. Global rhythmic influences meet machines. Deep, earthy percussion is surrounded by acidic lines and psychedelic details. None of these elements feels particularly interested in dominating the others. Instead, they form a constantly shifting ecosystem.
That quality is immediately apparent across the two original tracks on D.R.A.M.A.. Rather than relying on conventional melodic development, Mandruvá focuses on movement within the groove. Percussion gradually accumulates, textures appear and disappear, and the tracks seem to evolve through subtle alterations rather than dramatic gestures.
There is a sense of suspension running through the EP. The music feels grounded enough to function physically, but never entirely stable. Just as the listener becomes comfortable with a particular rhythmic pattern, some small sonic intervention changes its perception.
This is where the psychedelic aspect of Mandruvá's production becomes particularly effective. It is not psychedelic music in the conventional sense of overloaded effects or maximalist arrangements. Instead, the psychedelic quality emerges from repetition itself—from the way familiar sounds can become unfamiliar when they are heard for long enough.
The result is music that can work gradually on a dancefloor. Rather than demanding an immediate reaction, D.R.A.M.A. gives the body time to adapt to its rhythms.
Mandruvá's previous decade of activity has seen him release EPs, singles and remixes through labels such as Belly Dance Services and PBP Records. D.R.A.M.A. feels like a natural continuation of that trajectory, but its arrival on THISBE Recordings adds another layer to the story. The label's fascination with rhythm, ritual and unexpected combinations gives the release a context in which its more exploratory qualities can breathe.
The remix package then opens the material to further interpretation. French DJ Letvink, Argentine-Spanish duo Poulper & Stylic and Pyrame each offer their own versions, shifting the balance between rhythm, atmosphere and club functionality. Their approaches broaden the EP without diluting its central identity.
There is no need for the remixes to reproduce Mandruvá's original perspective. In fact, their value lies precisely in the differences. They demonstrate that the tracks contain enough structural depth to be taken apart, reconstructed and redirected.
That makes D.R.A.M.A. more than a two-track statement. It becomes a small network of interpretations around a common idea: rhythm as a form of transformation.
Almost ten years into the Mandruvá project, Faleiros continues to explore that territory with an unusually light touch. The music never needs to tell the listener what state of mind to enter. It simply creates the conditions for one to emerge.
The theatre may be ancient.
The machines are not.
But the impulse to lose yourself in rhythm remains remarkably unchanged.
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