From the first cymbal you know that ‘Notes to The Dust’, by The Marbles Jackson, is going to be an album worth listening to.
London-based Dreampop quartet, The Marbles Jackson, released their debut album in June this year on heavyweight 12″ vinyl, after a digital release in April. The band raised funds via a Pledge Music campaign, and certainly gave fans their money’s worth.
‘Notes to The Dust’ has been championed by both Jarvis Cocker and Guy Garvey (the latter of whom says he pretty much instantly fell in love with the album), and could quite easily have been made by The Doors, The Mamas & The Papas, or anyone else from that era – it’s California in the 60s made on modern technology. Dreampop, Psychpop, Shoegaze – whatever you want to call it, it’s ethereal and beautiful. Naokoko Takahashi’s vocals are mesmerising, dreamy, trance-like, the perfect counterpoint to the lead vocals of Terry Kirkbride.
Comprising Terry Kirkbride (voice, drums, guitar, percussion), Naokoko Takahashi (guitars, voice, drums), Simon Gwynne (keys, guitar), and Mikey Belfast Gibson (bass), The Marbles Jackson are pretty much a self-contained unit. Takahashi and Kirkbride have written most of the songs (with the exceptions being ‘Nowt Will Ever Be The Same‘ & ‘I Want Never Gets‘ by Kirkbride alone, and ‘What Remains’, written by Simon Gwynne), and producing them; additionally Takahashi mixed the album.
‘Nowt Will Ever Be The Same’, a brief yet gorgeous, gossamer-soft fairy-wing of a song, is perhaps the stand out of the album. The ethereal, husky, scratchy even, vocals of Takahashi make the song an earwormy listener.
The 12″ vinyl album was released on a limited pressing of 200 copies, some of which are still available at Rough Trade. If vinyl’s your thing, then for £16.99 it’s definitely an investment worth making. Alternatively, the album can be downloaded from iTunes or Amazon, as well as streamed via all the usual places.
Find The Marbles Jackson online on Twitter, Facebook, Soundcloud, and their website. They’ll be touring later this year: if their album is anything to go by then their live show will definitely be worth it!
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