Artist: Marlo Eggplant
Title: Loose Footing
Keywords: experimental scores sound textures writing practice London
Label: Dubbed Tapes
All these zines and blogs are all busy digging up their friends releases to place them semi unbiased in their so called end of the year lists, a thing that this release single-handily debunks by making them invalid and redundant as what are these lists worth if the best album of 2019 had not been placed on it? If we at YiKIS made a end of the year list we would simply put only this Marlo Eggplant release on it and no others. Not that we didn’t like any other music, but common – fair is fair; this album is standing out with neck and shoulders far above the masses. Like a giraffe that is just a bit longer than the other giraffes!
Why is this you might wonder? Well don’t you worry as you are at the right address to get some truth over here. This Marlo Eggplant album is the one to say Yes for! It showcases her talent in a very charming and very intimate way. Personally I love how everything is so pure and personal on it, but also how it is done without pushing things in your face. To me it as if it was a comfortable trippy ride in which we could sit and slide through the various intimate places inside the artist’s mind, being catered a wonderfully designed honest view of scenes that even though them all all being different, are all beautifully connected together.
In this trip there is simply no moment of waking up as it’s an uninterrupted showcase that Marlo provided over here, one with a high continuation that will easily make you lose the track of time, just like when you have found a good book that you can’t put down. You got to hear this album from the beginning to the end. Which in this case (all the way at the last bit of side B will be a happily empowering one. In the end it will feel as if you had climbed a high hill with the artist as our guide, one that gladly shares the amazing view with us! It’s like listening to the music of an artist that isn’t in any case selfish & definitely not afraid to open up a personal space to strangers.
Side A of the trip starts with some kind of micro dream in which quickly a mysterious character with a high spike jonze cartoon orchestra-feel appears, one that was dizzy enough to fall speedily down a rabbit hole. This is where things all seem to start, providing our ears with plenty of flipped voices that makes you feel as if it’s a good time scratch yourself behind your own ear, just to double check if they had been provided by Marlo or that it had been simply all been playing in your own head. The voices are mostly slipped in backwards, but when they do flip forwards they gladly inform us that its all about learning how to feel again.
From here we slip in a realm in which it’s easy to lose reality, with a welcoming committee of a wonderful noisy kindness, the kind that comes across as the wheels of s pram rolling on petite sounding gravel that crunches sweetly in the ears, making me think of a color scheme in all shades of pink, a brightness that is very different compared to the standard harsh noise black and greyness visuals.
From here things steadily slide into a even deeper realm, as if we are invited to go through a maze of incredible personal depths, crawling through mysterious lengthy holes in which we probably get lost in, but the homely atmosphere that these strange surroundings are providing are making us believe that we are actually at the right place in time. Being inside the imagination of Marlo Eggplant for sure isn’t a place to hide away from. With them forming melodies that are scratching the audio corners of abstractism and push these boundaries a bit furter in order to clearly create a realm of brave intimacy, the kind that gives the homeless a home to hang around in. And any others a fine alternative personal place to visit for a pleasant while.
some field recording might pop up in between, keeping the inside Marlo Eggplant trip in touch with the outside human being, enough to not completly lose track of space, time and reason.
We can fantasise about the things that are rumblingly humming in the distance, the warm layers of mystique thick drones that buzz the heart for a firm life-check. The deeper into Loose Footing the more it feels as if er are traveling in revealing inner bits of the artist. It was so pleasant and embracingly welcoming that it might make us all feel as if we had been placed in an cozy egg, while a pleasant mother had been brewing us out in all her protective loveliness and warm vibe of pure safety. Hear the pulsating sounds that eventually will kindly crack this shell open, only to reveal even more kindhearted kindness in an abstract audio form.
Marlo Eggplant provide the things that are like an emotional melodic dense layer, something that will do its ultimate best to make us feel as if we had touched a sensible snare of the core that this artist is all about: a human being expressing herself in audio, music, sound, melodies and plenty of ideas.
Marlo plays heartly some tones like a happy child in between, the kind thst creative writers should probably be inspired by to write entire folklore stories about; so wonderful and intensively inviting! The artist simply seems so open to everyone, fearless to show her feelings and ultimately open to expose her emotions; inviting everyone in who is lucky enough to be able to hear this tape!
The first side finishes with a steamboat of bass, growling out its loud sounds like a large whale’s belly rumbling in hunger. Probably a hunger for more of what Marlo Eggplant had created!
On side B the listener is kindly greeted with more kind intimate chats of care. They are providing the right entrance let more sweet honest emotion fall over us, they are caring for us providing the kind of ambience that feels similar to a calm night on a winters day, one that will have our ears warmed up to a fine fireplace, perhaps even providing a soft blanket of repetitive dound all over our cold parts – it’s just an example but it will be a great opportunity to just feel the generous intimate love by this incredible open sounding artist.
An openness in which even moments of poetry will be an appreciated cultural happening. And a field recording will simply generate that wonderful feeling of us traveling through a travel-zone as if we had been nicely tucked away in the artist’s pocket, for a great view, warmth and not even having to stress or use our legs to move around.
The trip will go through a futuristic sensation of believable humbleness that feels like an anthem that could have been performed by bagpipes on top of a highly respected hill. With a repetive bass of rhythm the pulse had been set for a distorted guitar-ish sound ready to flush itself through like an wise wisdom that Marlo had been so kind, so open, so honest and lovely to share with anyone listening to this tape! A wonderful personal trip that will transport us through a human being that will show us that we are all connected and beautiful inside!
Album of the year 2019? Oh absolutely! If you live for music close to a human’s soul than this is definitely the honest trip to go for! Get this wonderfully designed dubbed tape from the following link and enjoy:
https://dubbedtapes.bandcamp.com/album/loose-footing
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Yeah I Know It Sucks 