ALLEN, MARINA
CENTRIFICS (FIRE RECORDS)
LA-based musician Marina Allen's spectacular debut proper, and follow up to last years acclaimed 18 minute mini-opus, 'Candlepower'.
'Centrifics' is a joyful collection of observations and questions about the self, the world, and how they interact.
Awe-inspiring reflections accompany mesmerizing melodies while Allen's extraordinary range and depth of singing showcases a wide array of influences from Karen Carpenter to Karen Dalton, from Joanna Newsom to Fiona Apple, from Cate Le Bon to Waxahatchee, via Meredith Monk and the New York avant-garde.
While the more DIY Candlepower, pieced together over a couple of years was subversive, and obscure, Centrifics is more joyful, funny and direct.
Lilting melodies deliver serious messages: "For me a lot of the magic rises in the studio as my arrangements emerge and shift.
I had wonderful collaborators on Centrifics who were willing to go along with the cinematic flow I tend to envision.
Chris Cohen and later, Ben Varian and I, worked off barebones tracks, adding only those thoughts and lines and instruments that we were certain could amplify the meaning.
Other beautiful contributions came from Emily Elhaj, Logan Hone, Jasper McMahon and Joachim Polack." Produced, engineered, and mixed by Chris Cohen, o-engineered by Jonny Kosmo.
"A songwriter of rare skill and intensity" Clash "Exquisite melodies and cool, pure, dreamy delivery" Mojo "Intensely personal and widely universal" Paste