Carl Kavorkian has returned with his third release as MANIKINETER in just two years; Not As They Do EP follows 2017's Missing & Mannequin Eater EP's, as well as a stand-alone single entitled "Shoot The Chalice." Kavorkian self-describes his MANIKINETER output on Bandcamp as " experimental, hip-hop, industrial, electronic, noise, and punk," but I've generally, just described it simply as Noise-Rap since first hearing Mannequin Eater. I've always enjoyed Punk/Hardcore and Hip-Hop concurrently without finding many releases successfully able to blend the two (very similar) genres in a natural, organic way, aside from Mos Def & Black Jack Johnson's 2004 magnum opus The New Danger, of course. It appears as though Carl Kavorkian had been toying with the idea of merging Hip-Hop, Punk/Hardcore, Industrial, and a multitude of genres on his releases prior to MANIKINETER's Mannequin Eater EP; for those who still have yet to experience MANIKINETER's unique genre-eschewing sound, I would compare it to something along the lines of Henry Rollins-era Black Flag meets Nine Inch Nails with the added fearlessness of DOOM. Kavorkian was actually, fortunate enough to work with DOOM on his 2004 album, (VV:2) Venomous Villain released as Viktor Vaughn.


First off, the implied dichotomy between single "Do As They Say" and EP title Not As They Do is sheer genius on Carl Kavorkain's part and trust me, that's merely just the tip of the iceberg. Not only is Kavorkian a rapper/vocalist and producer, he also handles the visual art and graphic/web design for all of his albums and recently took up painting as a hobby, as well. "I've pretty much done all of the artwork for my projects: the logos, album covers, websites, etc. I've also directed, filmed, and edited parts or all of most of my videos," Carl Kavorkian recently told Ghettoblaster Magazine. " Graphic/Web Design is my chosen career, so I've been lucky enough to have been able to take care of all that stuff. Video editing software is somewhat similar to Adobe Flash, so I was able to pick that up pretty easily," he continued. Not unlike its predecessors, MANIKINETER's Not As They Do EP consists of 5 Aggro-Rap tracks and is available either digitally or on limited edition cassette from Cult Member Music. It sounds similar enough to both Mannequin Eater & Missing, but you can definitely hear a difference in sound quality and recording technique on Not As They Do, largely due to Carl Kavorkian's recording set-up upgrade since his inaugural release. Kavorkain is heading out on a co-headlining tour with Darko The Super affiliates STATIC BROTHERS this weekend, April 26-29 for a string of feverish Punk/Rap sets across the Tri-State Area.