Thanks to Brad Conrad for sending us some great live Marriages photos from the Sargent House show at SXSW 2012. Speaking of Marriages they will be hitting the road with our very own Russian Circles and Chelsea Wolfe for some US tour dates in August to be announced soon!
(Source: marriagesband)
Have you heard what a Japanese fox sounds like?
Neither have I, but this new EP from prog trip outfit Marriages might just possess as many magical qualities as our eastern brethren associate with this fantastic little animal.
Kitsune is the debut record from Emma Ruth Rundle, Greg Burns and David Clifford; three fifths of pioneering noisesmiths Red Sparowes and all of their new side project Marriages.
As is oft the way for truly creative types, one outlet for all their ideas and energy doesn’t seem to have been enough for threesome of musicians, and their new band was born from their collective excess mojo.
And lucky for us that it was.
Listening to Marriages debut album Kitsune is an almost spiritual experience. I don’t mean that listening to the album is going to cause you to find God or anything like that but it will take you to another place with its ghostly musings. The songs here are beautifully epic and will haunt your soul. The credit there goes to singer/guitarist Emma Ruth Rundle whose voice and guitar textures are the soul of Marriages.
The songs released up until now don’t do Kitsune justice. It’s not that the songs aren’t good, because they’re beyond that, but within the realm of Kitsune and the flow they create with the rest of the album they’re perfection. “Ten Tiny Fingers” was incredible on its own but hearing the synth intro at the end of “Body of Shade” which goes directly into “Ten…” will give you goosebumps.
Marriages: Kitsuné (Sargent House)
Though their union is new, the members of Marriages are veterans of post-rock experimentation, and their self-titled debut challenges the very notion of the sub-genre.
Guitarist/vocalist Emma Ruth Rundle, bassist Greg Burns, and drummer Dave Clifford all spend time in Red Sparowes, a band that has pushed the boundaries of the loud-soft dynamic with an innovative use of pedal-steel guitar and subtle vocal textures. But Marriages is markedly different, built around Rundle’s intoxicating vocals and unconventional guitar style.
Rundle’s vocals — breathy and, at times, ghostly — benefit from a bit of traditional post-rock atmospherics. But they’re also joined by a subtle, deep effect, allowing her to harmonize with a nearly inaudible lower octave. One might compare the sound to PJ Harvey teaming up with Tool in 1995 to cover Mazzy Star — butyou should skip comparison entirely, as Marriages isn’t quite like anything else.
Click above to hear the Spinner full album stream of Kitsune by Marriages out today, May 1st on Sargent House. Order the CD or Vinyl, or buy on Bandcamp or Itunes
3 QUESTIONS
ONE: Could you tell us about your upcoming album Kitsune and what it was like making it?
Emma Ruth Rundle: The theme that we named the record after was just…It went along with the artwork. We purchased these Japanese Oni masks, and one of the masks was ‘kitsune’ which is the possession of the fox spirit, and so we sort of did the artwork around that. We used that whole idea to tie things together.
It’s the return of American label Sargent House‘s podcast presented by 2XM’s Niahm Hegarty. This second edition features an interview of Marfred Rodriguez Lopez from Zechs Marquise, talking about his youth living around At The Drive-In and opening for their Texas reunion gigs. There’s also an interview of Marriages, a new band from Red Sparowes members Greg Burns, Emma Ruth Rundle, Dave Clifford and featuring music from Sargent House’s roster of bands that are all touring in Europe this year, And So I Watch You From Afar, Chelsea Wolfe, Big Sir, Tera Melos, Deafheaven and Russian Circles.
And if you missed the First Sargent House Podcast back in February 2012, featuring interviews with Indian Handcrafts and music from our bands going to SXSW 2012 you can check it out HERE
Marriages / Kitsune
Sargent House
In addition to more than a handful of other bands, all three members of Los Angeles heavy psych rockers Marriages have been involved in the instrumental post-metal outfit Red Sparowes at one point or another. For anyone who heard either of the first two albums that Isis-derived side-project-plus put out on Neurosis’ Neurot Recordings, that should give some reasonable estimation of what Marriages uses as their creative base for their Sargent House debut, Kitsune.
By comparison, however, Kitsune is shorter, less self-indulgent, and more song-based than most of Red Sparowes’ echoing explorations—though some of that infinite range of distortion remains. The major change on these six tracks is that guitarist/pianist/flutist Emma Ruth Rundle also contributes vocals and helps give a song like opener “Ride In My Place” its shape, which is still well within the realm of psychedelic post-rock, but not quite as willing to let go of structure. Ultimately, the album’s adherence to such familiarities as verses and choruses pulls it back from an edge of would-be progressivism (and into, I’d argue, actual progressivism) and makes even an ultra-ambient piece like “Body Of Shade” something listeners can grasp onto.
Marriages, a new group that features three members from Red Sparowes, recently recorded a six-song debut entitled Kitsune. The dark, moody effort, recorded with Toshi Kasai, is hypnotic and occasionally experimental, employing vocals against heavy backdrops in a way that’s a big left-hand turn from their other band. “Ride In My Place,” an early listen from the album, which will be released May 1 via Sargent House, is gloomy number that pairs psychedelic and hard rock to create a melodic soundscape. - by Emily Zemler
Marriages -Download “Ride In My Place”
Song debut: Marriages, “White Shape”
It’s a little ironic that a band called Marriages is the result of a splintering—not that Red Sparowes, the band that spawned Marriages, has broken up or anything. Three-fifths of Red Sparowes, though (namely singer-guitarist Emma Ruth Rundle, bassist-keyboardist Greg Burns, and drummer Dave Clifford) has morphed into Marriages, whose debut, Kitsune, is being released by Sargent House on May 1. Wait, back up… singer? Yup. Unlike Red Sparowes, Marriages has vocals, and stunning ones, at that. Rundle’s wispy, otherworldly voice threads its way throughout her foglike guitar, while Burns and Clifford install some dreamy yet earthmoving low-end. That said: Loud is debuting Kitsune’s sole instrumental track, “White Shape,” below. Guess you’ll just have to get the whole album to hear some of those vocals. - by Jason Heller
FLABmag: Obviously asking how you met and/or decided to collaborate together is not a feasible line of questioning (since we already know the answer), but I’d like to know: Why “Marriages” and why now?
D: Why not? We’d wanted to bring vocals in to Red Sparowes in a subtle way for a long time, but it just never seemed to work the way it should. I think this has been a way of keeping productive while being able to explore ideas and sounds that wouldn’t seem appropriate in Red Sparowes. Marriages originally began as a collaboration between Emma and Greg and then eventually they asked me to join in.
ERR: Marriages, why? Because we like you.
FLABmag: I know you guys were in the studio last summer working on a new Red Sparowes album, what became of that work? Was Marriages born out of those sessions?
D: Red Sparowes had been working on songs for a new album on and off for a while, but everyone’s schedules were really out of whack and it had been making it difficult to make a lot of progress. We have a good chunk of stuff written already, but decided to take a little break while everyone had a lot of personal life things to tend to — school, running businesses, weddings, etc. We plan to reconvene after taking a breather and see what more we can come up with at that time. Marriages is a way to explore other ideas as a separate entity.
ERR: Marriages was not born from any Red Sparowes ideas at all but from the working relationships Greg, Dave and I already had and a desire to explore ideas that might have been disruptive to the aesthetic of Red Sparowes.
From the threesome’s forthcoming debut, ‘Kitsune’
If first impressions are everything, Marriages are in great shape. Case in point: “Ride in My Place,” the opening gust from the trio’s forthcoming debut via Sargent House, Kitsune. All three members also share time in Los Angeleno post-rock collective Red Sparowes, an instrumental outfit that served as a meeting point for musicians stepping away from other projects. But here, singer/guitarist Emma Ruth Rundle steps behind a microphone to add welcome layers of smoke-bombed vocals. The result is a muscular, beautifully marbled slab of mood-rock that sounds less like a side-project’s side-project and more like a band about to howl.
Then it was to the Bat Bar for Gypsyblood. When you listen to their records, you hear lots of softer single-note guitar riffs with complex time signatures and tempo changes in their rhythm section, as well as tricky vocal melodies — but when you hear Gypsyblood live, they rip your face off and chop you up into a million little pieces. and you can hardly recognize the songs, even when you know every word. Their stage presence is filled with manic energy. Gypsyblood’s sound is unique to them, mixing chaotic post-punk rhythms with a ferocious and borderline psychotic energy.
The next band up at the Bat Bar was Marriages from Los Angeles. This experimental trio filled the room with rhythmic guitar tapping, droning bass, and a tight drum section. The drum and bass filled up enough space that could have been enough to listen to on their own. The guitars plunged their sound into oceans of feedback noise bliss that sounded like a slightly poppy version of Pelican. Their female singer added the perfect airy vocals soft touch to their songs in between finger tapping on her guitar.
SEE FULL REVIEW & PHOTOS
Los Angeles, join us as we bid a short farewell to Deafheaven and Marriages on March 9th at the Smell before they head off together, touring their way down to SXSW where we will then meet with them again. This show is All Ages and damn if the Sargent House crew won’t be there in full force! Also loving on this whole lineup! Whirr and DNF bring it.
LIST OF ALL DEAFHEAVEN SHOWS
LIST OF ALL MARRIAGES SHOWS
Deafheaven will be playing some shows down to SXSW with new Red Sparowes off shoot band Marriages and Nick Bassett ( the touring Guitar player in Deafheaven’s) main band Whirr . While in Austin they will be playing a Day show for Pitchfork’s Show No Mercy at ND Studios on March 14th and for Brooklyn Vegan & Power of The Riff at Scoot In on March 16th, then they will play that same night the official Sargent House / 1656 Music showcase with : Chelsea Wolfe, Zechs Marquise, Indian Handcrafts, And So I Watch You From Afar, Marriages and Gypsyblood. Immediately following they will join up for US tour dates with Alcest through March 31st. Making their last US stop a special guest appearance on April 1st, with Deathwish, Inc family bands Converge and Loma Prieta at The Met in Pawtucket, RI. From there they get right on a plane back to Europe for April and May as direct support on a 6 week European tour with Russian Circles.
DEAFHEAVEN/WHIRR/MARRIAGES/SXSW
03/09 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Smell w/ DNF, Whirr & Marriages
03/10 - Phoenix, AZ @ The Trunk Space w/ Whirr & Marriages
03/11 – El Paso, TX @ Low Brow w/ Whirr & Marriages
03/13 – Denton, TX @ Rubber Gloves w/ Whirr & Marriages
03/14 - Austin, TX @ Pitchfork Show No Mercy Day Party at ND Studios
03/16 - Austin, TX @ Scoot Inn (Bklyn Vegan & Power of the Riff)
03/16 – Austin, TX @ Sargent House Official Show SXSW - NIGHT
