Review Summary: The sky is alive with thunder.
Modernist writer T.S. Eliot famously ended his 1925 poem The Hollow Men with the lines:
“This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.”
Knocknarea, the debut EP from jazzy Manchester post-punk upstarts Maruja, seems determined to prove this statement wrong. Because if this is said whimper, then by god no one on earth is ready for a bang.
Put simply, the twenty odd-minutes of material to be found here are the closest thing to the apocalypse you’ll experience in audio form this year. The recipe here is deceptively simple - take that dark British post-punk sound, thicken it up with Self Defense Family-esque post-hardcore, drench it in Godspeed You! Black Emperor-ish atmosphere, sprinkle in the dynamism of fellow new wave of British rock acts (black midi, BCNR, etc.) to taste. Sounds pretty good right? Now hear me out on this one, what if we took this exquisite concoction, and wrapped it around the most attention-grabbing saxophone performance this side of a John Zorn concert?
Yes, this isn’t just a “We’re a post-punk band but we don’t want to be called the next Interpol so we have a sax player chime in twice a song” gimmick, this is what actually building songs around an instrument that demands to be the focal point sounds like. And it sounds so damn good. Which isn’t to say that the other performances here are overshadowed, to the contrary in fact. The extensive use of guitar effects evolves past mere ***ery for the sake of ***ery into an essential component of the gargantuan soundscapes littered throughout the EP. Both bass and drums shine in a more supporting role, driving each track’s structural ebb and flow with a finesse rare to find so early in a band’s career. Strained, shouted vocals gain greater impact in their sparing use, emphasising the direct and deliberate lyrical focus that wastes no time faffing about with faux-poetic over-complication. But that saxophone, it just gets to you. Alternating between howls of despair, ugly-beautiful sobs, rising blood-pressure builds and everything in between, this is what pushes Maruja past being just an exciting young band, into one of those artists with the potential to be generational.
Truth be told, it’s taking me a lot not to just say *** it and declare this one of the best debut releases in years, and the major thing that’s stopping me is my belief that this band can, and hopefully will, impress me even more as they blossom like the first saplings after a forest fire. So for now, I will preemptively call this your chance to get on the hype train before it really takes off. Because whatever is next for Maruja, you sure as hell don’t want to miss the journey.
