https://www.nme.com/features/music-features/gary-mani-mounfield-stone-roses-primal-scream-obituary-3910703
His loping melodic bassline was the first thing you heard on ‘The Stone Roses’, gliding across the cosmic opening of ‘I Wanna Be Adored’, and the last thing you remembered of the record – driving the euphoric psych rock coda of ‘I Am The Resurrection’. Snaked around John Squire’s chiming guitar work, it was the winding core of The Stone Roses’ groove and the jolting heartbeat of the entire Madchester movement.
Gary “Mani” Mounfield, who died today (November 20) aged 63, held a rare place in the world of bass heroes; just as much as the melodies and the mercurial playing he supported on the band’s legendary 1989 debut album, he drafted and defined a scene with some of the most infectious and hypnotic basslines ever recorded.
Among his more silent, surly and boggle-eyed peers, the Manchester mainstay also became the amenable face of baggy and one of the most revered bassists of his generation. Going on to join Primal Scream in the wake of The Roses’ split in 1996, Mani was at the core of the group’s highly acclaimed and influential future rock rejuvenation with 1997’s ‘Vanishing Point’ and 2000’s ‘XTRMNTR’ and, having crossed from one seminal rock act to another – via a supportive-cum-disruptive role around the major recordings of Oasis – became a much-loved, era-straddling figure at the core of ‘90s music and beyond.
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Both weighty and melodic, Mani’s bewitching basslines became the bedrock and, often, the driving force of The Roses’ breakthrough tracks ‘Elephant Stone’, ‘Made Of Stone’ and ‘She Bangs The Drums’, and underpinned the band’s low-slung funk development on ‘Fools Gold’ – arguably a four-minute encapsulation of the entire late-’80s dance rock scene.
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