Thursday 13 April 2017

NEW RELEASES - MARNIE, MT. DOUBT AND AMOR

I've been stuck in a world of Depeche Mode blogging of late, meaning that I've fallen far behind on all non Mode related blog duties. There are three new releases, all Scottish and all superb, that I've been meaning to write about but haven't had the chance until now. To improve your Easter weekend no end, grab yourself all three of these tracks - you won't be disappointed.

MARNIE - LOST MAPS

Ahead of her forthcoming album Strange Words and Weird Wars, Marnie has released a second track from that record, Lost Maps which follows the quite brilliant Alphabet Block (review and interview with Helen here - click ). Lost Maps is a wonderful song, filled with dark, pulsing synth parts that bring the type of modular synth sounds you find on the new Depeche album. Once again, Marnie expertly manages to balance dark, electropop synths with a captivating, almost pure pop vocal melody, making Lost Maps a track that you instantly fall in love with. Like Alphabet Block, Lost Maps is a tantalising glimpse of what's to come with Strange Words and Weird Wars, an album that's destined to be one of the finest records you'll hear this year.




MT. DOUBT - TOURISTS

The buzz surrounding Mt Doubt continues to justifiably grow. Tourists is the band's first release of 2017, issued on the Scottish Fiction label as a split 7" with Foreignfox, and as with each new Mt. Doubt release, the songwriting is taken to another level. The track is a poppier affair than you might expect from Mt. Doubt, albeit the pop I speak of is very much at the darker end of the scale. Surrounding Leo Bargery's trademark powerful vocals are ever increasingly powerful layers of guitar that give you a real flavour of how powerful this band is live. It's great to hear the sheer scale of their live performances captured here. Listen to Tourists below then head to the Scottish Fiction bandcamp page to get the 7" single.



AMOR - PARADISE

Amor are made up of Paul Thomson, Michael Francis Duch, Luke Fowler and Richard Youngs, and with Paradise they've released one of this year's great tracks. It's on the wonderful Night School Records, a label that specialises in releasing nothing but magical records and this is no exception. The 12" single was limited to 500 copies which have probably all gone by now, but you should still buy the download immediately. Paradise sounds like a great lost 12" extended remix from the days when singles had such things as opposed to the generic substandard famous name DJ rubbish that blights remix singles these days. There are elements of disco, electro and even a dash of Can here, creating a type of sound that LCD Soundsystem would have come up with if they'd hailed from Glasgow rather than New York. It's an epic song basically, and once you hear it, you will fall in love with it



That's me caught up then. Normal Depeche Mode service will shortly be resumed.

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