Muscle & Marrow releasing 'Love' (stream two tracks)
Portland, OR dark experimental duo Muscle & Marrow will follow their 2014 debut The Human Cry with Love on May 27 via The Flenser (pre-order). The band recently debuted its lead single “My Fear” and we’re premiering another track, “Black Hole,” in this post. While “dark” and “experimental” definitely do apply here, Muscle & Marrow are making accessible music (creepily accessible, but accessible nonetheless). They aren’t quite like any particular artist, but if you’re into Chelsea Wolfe, Siouxsie and the Banshees or early PJ Harvey, you’ll probably find this hits close to home. Or maybe for “Black Hole,” Courtney Love. Singer Kira Clark tells us:
Black Hole explores the tension between the idea that my aloneness, which I so often feel, is my truest and best form, and the idea that my aloneness indicates some sort of core flaw and sadness that will always haunt me. Does strength pour from my holes (holes being a metaphor for pain, a Courtney Love reference, and maybe a little intentionally sexual and strange) or do I live in a black hole? The song also references my mother who I for so long thought of as someone who is sad but the narrative that I find also true these days, for both of us, is one of strength. However, “the flapping wing keeps following” is a reference to great pain. Flapping wing is a term used in Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace that I was slogging through when I wrote the song. It’s a crushing passage of the book and I so often feel caught between sadness and strength. The song is about trying to exist in both of those spaces.
This is our favorite song on the record because we think it indicates the most strongly the direction we’re headed. We added drums and guitar last and focused instead on electronic elements and vocals first. It felt very freeing to be able to have such a clean pallet to work with while first constructing the song.
Stream “Black Hole” and “My Fear” below:
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Tracklist:
1. My Fear
2. Black Hole
3. Womb
4. The Drooling Mouth
5. Sacs of Teeth
6. Bereft Body
7. Light
