--- release: # ______ # /\____ _ ____ ___/\ ____ ______ _____ / o /| # / . \/ \ // V \|\ \| .\/ ||/ // /// # / / ^ ` \ > \ \\\_ ._ | ! . /// # / // \\ . \ / .\\ // . \\/ -\\ \ /// # __/___//--->> \ V Y V // / . \/ # //_- \_ \ \\ !| // / .. . /| !| . \ # <<-. _ .__. /_- X .| .. /\ / //|! .|\ \\ \ # \\ \ /|\________/\\____^_____//^\_______ ///|____^_______\ # \\____//|\_------_/ \_-_> <_--_|/ \_----_|\/// |_--_|_-----_/ # \_--_|/ \|/ # #/---------------------------------------------------------------\ artist: Black Marble title : Fast Idol label : Sacred Bones Records catalog_number: SBR-278 #\---------------------+-----------------------------------------/ tracks: 11 type : normal date : 2021-10-22 url : https://www.deezer.com/us/album/245661372 sourcemedia: WEB encoder : LAME3.99r bitrate : 320 kb/s sample_rate: 44.1 kHz stereo : Joint stereo / MS Stereo channels genre : Darkwave genres: - coldwave - post-punk - electronic - shoegaze - minimal synth similar_artists: - Lust for Youth - Cold Cave - The KVB - Soft Kill - Tempers artist_url : https://blackmarble.bandcamp.com bandcamp_albumartist : https://blackmarble.bandcamp.com/ discogs_albumartist : https://www.discogs.com/artist/2433043 musicbrainz_albumartist: https://musicbrainz.org/artist/fd7d4ed7-1a14-4b5b-b8f2-074888187ebc deezer_albumartist : https://deezer.com/us/artist/4051073 lastfm_albumartist : https://last.fm/music/Black+Marble spotify_albumartist : https://open.spotify.com/artist/6Nii4K84ZzBZS8X2MP8c9t bandcamp_album : https://blackmarble.bandcamp.com/album/fast-idol musicbrainz_album: https://musicbrainz.org/release/9daa9a35-e064-440b-81a3-b3dcd7dbc833 deezer_album : https://deezer.com/us/album/245661372 spotify_album : https://open.spotify.com/artist/3DHzWu5j1M4GY0SWBeKj5u lastfm_album : https://last.fm/music/Black+Marble/Fast+Idol barcode : 843563139868 label_url : http://www.sacredbonesrecords.com bandcamp_label : https://sacredbonesrecords.bandcamp.com/ discogs_label : https://www.discogs.com/label/98317 musicbrainz_label: https://musicbrainz.org/label/dba6e089-932a-4442-9ebe-fbbceb9476ef # <--------------------+------------------------------------------> # \_____________________________________________________________/ #/---------------------------------------------------------------------\ comment: | On Fast Idol, LA-based Black Marble reaches back through time to connect with the forgotten bedroom kids of the analogue era, the halcyon days of icy hooks and warbly synths always on the edge of going out of tune. Harmonies are piped in across the expanse of space, and lyrics capture conversations that seem to come from another room, repeat an accusation overheard, or speak as if in sleep of interpersonal struggles distilled down to one subconscious phrase. At the same time, percussive elements feel forward and cut through the mix with toms counting off the measures like a lost tribe broadcasting through the bass and tops of a basement club soundsystem. Fast Idol is Stewart's fourth full-length album and his second for Sacred Bones. His previous album Bigger than Life was written in the face of cultural shifts in the US, in experiencing these he realised he was not keyed into certain negative sentiments that were bubbling below the surface, which were breaking out into the open. ΓÇ£I chose to try and take the approach of a soothsayer writing from a macro level, trying to find strands of connection between us because it didnΓÇÖt feel appropriate to create something self referential and gloomy at the time,ΓÇ¥ he says. Now, Fast Idol sees him return to a sentiment and process that defined the earlier days of Black Marble, in a return to his intuitive song writing process where songs land as impressionistic snippets of daily conflicts, and people struggle with the challenge of trying to move through the world. ΓÇ£People donΓÇÖt expect me to be responsible for altering their outlook or mood, they come to hear something that meets them where they are. I trusted on this record that if I stayed in that space and created things from that more mysterious place, it would connect with others.ΓÇ¥ Melodies roll with the fizz and charm of Jacno and phrases repeated are electric torchlight ballads sung after hours in William GibsonΓÇÖs San Francisco. 'Somewhere' opens in sombre herald, before dropping into a fast freeway tempo; the glassy synths and crisp beats cut through the anxious moods on 'Bodies' and 'Try' sits in a lineage with cult bands like Asylum Party. 'The Garden' is a journey through a post-apocalyptic cityscape, earthed by the pulse of a drum machine whereas 'Ship To Shore' could be a lost Oppenheimer Analysis B-side, and the albumΓÇÖs closer 'Brighter and Bigger' catches a sentiment like The Dadacomputer has learned to feel emotions. Black Marble is the universal and enigmatic observer at the centre of his music, watching time passing, the world changing, and embracing the anxiety it brings. He captures the loneliness of Ray BradburyΓÇÖs atomic-era sci-fi and the apocalyptic but revolutionary spirit of GodardΓÇÖs Sympathy for the Devil, as in ΓÇÿPreoccupationΓÇÖ, the beating heart of the album, which conjures ambivalent scenes of an empty world and the comfort to be found in a shared humanity in lyrics that state: ΓÇ£What is gone only people and time, standing tall covered cities and signs. Well IΓÇÖve wandered the west side and IΓÇÖve laughed at your broken roads but this feeling of preoccupation makes life whole.ΓÇ¥ Stewart writes and plays everything himself, and tours with a rotating cast of players. Emerging from the early 2000s New York synth scene, Black Marble carried on the tradition of early synthwave pioneers like Martin Dupont and Modern Art who repurposed synths once reserved for expensive studios and stadium rock superstars. Available widely and cheaply for the first time, these synths became a staple for bedroom artists ΓÇô connecting wires and twisting knobs into something that felt entirely new. Seeking to channel this spirit, Black Marble recalls the gauzy tape wow and flutter of The Membranes and the warbling VCO of Futurisk, carrying on a sound that seeks to channel the future while imprinting residue of the past. These early reference points are still audible, an electronic sound steeped in punk spirit, galvanised by passion: "When I started making songs I got enough positive feedback just to keep me going," Stewart says, "and then I never stopped." Black Marble was signed with just one song available online, and Stewart has been writing songs and making music ever since, beginning with A Different Arrangement on Hardly Art in 2012, followed by It's Immaterial in 2016 on Ghostly International and Bigger Than Life on his current label acred Bones in 2019, with two EPs also to his name. "On my previous album I was more specific about the themes I was talking about," Stewart says. "Fast Idol goes back to the songwriting on my early records, where the themes were guided by intuition and instinct ΓÇô often, their meanings only become clear to me after they're written." Fast Idol sees Black Marble face the rising tide of uncertainty, leaving our future selves to trace its signal as its frequencies echo into an interstellar expanse, looking for a receiver. He says: "I want my music to stick with you after I leave, even though you might not feel like youΓÇÖre any closer to knowing it." bio : | Black Marble is one of the latest and greatest additions to the Brooklyn synthwave lexicon. Their stark, alienating textures cloister a vaguely hopeful intensity, like a lone and distant rhythm echoing from the hull of a lost deep sea vessel. Reminiscent of early DIY synth recordings, which pitted emotional undercurrents against wan dystopian landscapes, Black MarbleΓÇÖs sound struggles to squeeze blood from monolithic concrete. Collaborators Ty Kube and Chris Stewart take their inspiration from a disparate group of past musicians who dared to mix punk ethics with cold electronics, resulting in an enigmatic, handmade style that recalls the isolated-but-uplifting feel of early European minimal and coldwave music. Triumphantly bleak but undeniably infectious, Black Marble's debut EP Weight Against the Door arrives, appropriately, at the height of winter. # | | # >-------------------------------------------------------------------< tracklist: - [ 1 , "Somewhere" , 00:06:04.512 ] - [ 2 , "Bodies" , 00:04:34.625 ] - [ 3 , "Royal Walls" , 00:05:37.084 ] - [ 4 , "Try" , 00:05:19.608 ] - [ 5 , "The Garden" , 00:02:53.557 ] - [ 6 , "Say It First" , 00:05:07.644 ] - [ 7 , "Streetlight" , 00:05:09.707 ] - [ 8 , "Ceiling" , 00:05:00.355 ] - [ 9 , "Ship To Shore" , 00:03:44.104 ] - [ 10 , "Preoccupation" , 00:04:50.716 ] - [ 11 , "Brighter And Bigger" , 00:04:02.024 ] # \____________________________________________________________________/ # #/---------------------------------------------------------------------\ news: | Hi chaps! This is the new retrofuturistic "back to the future" obso-leet AMOK nfo hybridising oldskool ASCII art and YAML. As a possible first in the scene (is it really?), we provide an nfo that is designed to be both human and machine readable. It is not so interesting for the average joe ripper listener but it will be a useful tool for siteops, nukers, dupedb and archives curators. Why this? Because we need a structure that can support metadata and UTF8. As years pass, dirnames are getting stuffed with more and more metadata. It is impossible to parse 100% reliably because dirnames are just not designed to be storage for heterogenous metadata. With id3v2, vorbis and .yml.nfo files, we can fix this problem, we can have a more reliable dupechecking, automate common tasks, filter and sort releases based on different metadata, such as label and have more useful subgenres e.g. acid techno, deep house, djent... With .yml.nfo, you do not need read access to the media files and id3 metadata, you can automate mandatory fields checks (eg. source codec, purchase url) nfo files supporting the yaml format should have the extension .yml.nfo e.g. 00-alice-bob-cd-2018.yml.nfo The schema_version tag allows that nfo format to evolve and stay compatible. The current schema will be published in the near future to make sure all .yml.nfo released will use the same structure and set of keys. schema_version: 0.0.5 #| | #| | # >-------------------------------------------------------------------< #| Sites: D... ..... ...... - T3 - 16GB - Xxx.xx.xxx.xxx | # >~~~~~~ M........ - E1 - 09GB - Xxx.xx.xxx.xxx +> #| R..... ...... ...... - E1 - 09GB - Xxx.xx.xx.xxx | # >-------------------------------------------------------------------< #| | greetings: all #| | #\--------- --=[ Thinking AMOK - The Superior Lifestyle ]=-- ----------/ # \___________________________________________________________________/