Marionette EP 12 Inch Vinyl

Newly signed to indie heavyweights Heist or Hit Westside Cowboy, Hers EP two Marionette has been produced by Daniel Fox Sprints, Melts, Psychotic Monks, Naked Lungs, Nerves, Ronan Group and its set to be seminal. A set text for future musicians with aspirations of innovation. The theme of the marionette is present throughout each song, involving some aspect of a power struggle and a lack of control within oneself. Opener Chocolate bounces in on a synth line as slippery and hyperactive as anything Aphex Twin ever cooked up. Crispy offbeat electronic cymbals play counterpoint to atonal guitars and pugilistic drumming before the track drywretches its way into a nauseating cacophony of euphoria. Its a tale of crippling social anxiety and a preference for an unflattering, lonely reality. The muted guitar pluck in the intro to Crows is the sonic equivalent of biting ones nails. An anxious, involuntary tic that speaks to the theme of guilt, especially surrounding digital culture children can watch what they please, just with viewer discretion. The track lurches between textures, weaving themselves in and out of focus. Guitars blare like sirens, interrupting paranoid urban centres at 2am, while the bass sounds like the inside of an insomniacs head on day four of a REM drought. The metallic intent of Discipline squats on the chest as though Steve Albini is your sleep paralysis demon. The pain of accountability spews from the industrial regularity of the beat, apt to the narrative of a soldier coming to terms with the lies that made him commit atrocious, violent acts. EP closer Servant starts like a Spectrum loading screen. Dialup modemcoded, it pauses for moments of whitenoisevomit and existential bloops. Fitting for a more abstract take on the idea of the power struggle filtered through religious imagery and selfawareness of ones own actions, coupled with an inability to exert control over them. The band pile on the textures with sadistic glee until the evil is exorcized and the modem melts. Connection severed. Across the EP, vocalist Joseph has a tendency to hyperfixate on themes of control and unhappiness. Creating rooms in which doom and isolation ricochet. Not that its all bad news we like to think that by shedding light on the negative, it commands a sense of hope. Influenced as much by the liminalspace horror and uncanny dread of Silent Hill as the existentialist theatre of The Twilight Zone or the absurdity of Twin Peaks, they occupy a space between unease and impulse. Makeshift Art Bar are not a band interested in being liked. Theyre a band interested in being necessary. Theres so much eating and drinking in their work that multiple listens simply dont satisfy something new reveals itself on each return visit. Audacious. Idiosyncratic. Vital. A young band carrying identity, defiance and an uncompromising vision as if it isnt a rare cargo.