Mandrake Handshake are a dynamic, shape-shifting collective from Oxford, with a shifting membership of somewhere between seven and ten musicians. Their line-up includes Row Janjuah (lead guitar/vocals), Trinity Oksana (lead vocals), Elvis Thirlwell (percussion), Joe Bourdier (drums), Rudy Mae Symonds (backing vocals), David Howard-Baker (saxophone/flute/keys), Moogieman (modular synth/keys), Charlie Arrowsmith (rhythm guitar/comet), and Jake Kavanagh (bass), and they've already made waves with two critically acclaimed EPs, in 'Shake The Hand That Feeds You', which was released via Nice Swan Records in 2022, and 'The Triple Point Of Water', released by Glasshouse Records later the same year. However, these were just a taster for their debut album, 'Earth Sized Worlds', which appeared via Tip Top Recordings in 2025. It's a heady, kaleidoscopic journey through cosmic grooves and hypnotic rhythms, and cements their reputation as fearless sonic explorers, with an intoxicating fusion of metronomic beats, Stereolab-inspired vocals, and a melting pot of Brazilian samba and 70's funk. 'Hypersonic Super-Asterid', is an eight-minute pulsating standout, and deserved to be the lead single despite it's uncompromising length, and the rest of the tracks draw on the motorik drive of Krautrock and the ethereal textures of Tangerine Dream. As an introduction to the band, here are their first two EPs collected together on one album, and if you are taken with their spellbinding tapestry of psychedelic wonder and cosmic imagination then give their album a try.
Track listing
01 Mandragora
02 Eclogue 11
03 Gonkulator
04 Monolith
05 Emonzaemon
06 Vitamin Sunday
07 Row's Tinted Glasses / Diogo Jota
