Both emotions and white-hot harmonies are running high in the latest record from Mariela, Darkness in the Garden, and you needn’t look beyond the EP’s second single, “Going Away,” to understand exactly what I’m talking about. As with “Even If We Don’t Know” and “The Funeral,” “Going Away” is a lightning bolt of a power ballad, and when considering the utter lack of vocal virtuosity among pop singles this summer, it’s possibly the heartiest dose of melodic might that you’re going to find when browsing the indie section of your local record store this June.
There aren’t a lot of grinding guitar solos, string pomp or distorted fireworks in Darkness in the Garden, but there is nevertheless a lot of dexterous fretwork on the part of Mariela in “Shatter the Glass,” “Borrowed Light” and “Misshapen Shadows,” which together make up one half of this extended play. The leads are aided by a very meticulously crafted master mix, but you can tell that this is probably a good depiction of their live sound and not the results of a super-boosted EQ. I applaud the work of the mixer in this record; it’s big, bold and yet not too intense to be listened-to on repeat.
URL: www.mariela.band/
The vocal track is woven into the instrumental harmony beautifully in “The Funeral,” and I could say the same for “Going Away” and “Shatter the Glass” as well. “Shatter the Glass” lives up to its violent title and dispatches a juggernaut of a groove right from the get-go, and I think that it was really smart of Mariela to have “Going Away” follow it in the tracklist. This EP has a nice flow to it, and I found that listening to it from start to finish without shuffling the individual songs adds even more emotional context to the different lyrical narratives in each track.
Contrast is a cornerstone component of the compositional technique employed by Mariela in Darkness in the Garden, and perhaps makes it the uniquely multifaceted release that it is more than anything else does. Every time we encounter something soft and tender in this EP, there’s something vicious and unpredictable waiting to tear our attention in the opposite direction (the build up to the chorus in “Borrowed Light” comes to mind). The rhythm is light when the music is blisteringly heavy, but in this juxtaposition Mariela creates the perfect patch of space to unleash their earthy and endearing poetry.
KKBOX: www.kkbox.com/sg/en/album/5Y5EWBTI1RC0h0F39UrZ009H-index.html
Mariela turn in their most robustly harmonious set of songs to date in Darkness in the Garden, and while I was only somewhat familiar with who these guys were before this June, I’m very interested in hearing more of their material following this fascinating summer hit. The talent here is raw, sometimes even abrasive when the band is firing on all cylinders, but there’s so much potential in the songwriting on this record that you would be foolish to dismiss it as just another indie experiment. The buzz around this group appears unstoppable at the moment, and to learn why, all you need to do is get yourself a copy of Darkness in the Garden.
Clay Burton