JM2020 by James Marrs

Last copies available here: https://allnightflightrecords.com/products/james-marrs-jm2020


'Ever-odder websites quoted; sampled text, tv and video scraps; plus tetchy electronics dug up and reconsidered from deep in cupboards. It’s with this palette that James Marrs speaks to the past few months of his making.

Some said or written bit sparked many of these tracks, in a way calling back to the voices heard on his 2020 LLI debut ‘No worries if not’. This is even wordier work, though, where clear and ambiguous vocals exist at all layers. Some are toplined, like the lolling speech generator swing heard on “Brain Matter Brain Popper Brainchild Brainwave” or DEBONAIR’s striking reading of found stock phrases that scrambles the warm-blooded to cold-wired continuum.

Others are crumpled and shuffled, stretched and ruffled, processed into rhythms or otherwise made to feel prismatic against soft- and Roland D-110 synths, and other background noises picked up here and there by Marrs’ curious ear. The Roland is highlighted on one of this collection’s rare instrumental-only tracks, “Heavy Blink”, which was recorded live and presented as-is. A performance as precious, distinct and intimate as each of the articulations that surround it.'

Text by Natalia Panzer
npanzer.com

Mastered by Rupert Clervaux
rupertclervaux.com

Art by Ju Canon
jucanon.com