Beatowls – ‘MARMA’ album review: a paradoxical voyage of love and pain
Having corralled an early fanbase with the previewing singles, ‘I Pray’ and ‘Please Lie To Me’, the rising British act Beatowls present their debut studio album, MARMA. Far from their jocular Liverpudlian namesake, Beatowls counter an optimistic rhythm and blues aesthetic with a contemporary flourish of nocturnal melancholy, drawing from influences in trip-hop and electro.
Beatowls is a trio comprised of producer and musician Carl Cook and vocalists Darcie Chazen and Tom Roberts. Together, this trio distils decades of musical evolution into a fresh yet unnerving package. From the album’s tense debut single, ‘Please Lie To Me’, Beatowls dictate a path of psychological dissonance and contradiction.
As we welcome the full LP, fears of monotony are quelled by a pleasing sonic breadth. Across the ten tracks, lyrical narratives are punctuated by Cook’s instrumental ruminations, from the ambient title track to the more rhythmic centrepiece formed by ‘Twilight’ and ‘Cinders’.
Beyond such influences in avant-garde electro and ambient music, MARMA finds identity and impetus in trip-hop-inspired textures. Thunderclapping drum machines and pulsating synths adorn the album’s more urgent highlights like ‘I Pray’ and ‘Please Lie To Me’.
Propellant basslines round out the rhythm section in places, juxtaposing a dub sound otherwise associated with Caribbean sunshine. The bass is particularly prominent in the third track, ‘All I See Is Trouble’, where both Chazen and Roberts take the mic to layer an eerie and oppressive soundscape with themes of dying romance.
In press materials, Roberts explained that MARMA invites listeners on a “cinematic journey” fraught with personal and universal experiences. He also noted the album’s paradoxical nature of light meets dark, “longing and pain.” Cook’s beats and the overlain lyrics achieve this objective in equal measure.
Contrary to, say, Bob Dylan’s word-dense forms, Beatowls thrive on a less-is-more doctrine. They allow immersive, benevolent instrumentals to fill the gaps left by elusive lyrics. Whether juxtaposing or complimenting, MARMA conveys its message by almost subconscious, pictorial means.
If you like spoon-fed narratives, you’ve come to the wrong place. Instead, axial refrains loosely guide the mind on a cathartic trip through a neo-psychedelic dream sequence. More akin to a nightmare, however, the music is a skeleton key to the modern psyche, reminding us we’re not alone in this realised dystopia.
This debut album doesn’t charter untrodden territory, but as a celebration of various musical influences, young and old, it’s veritably refreshing. Cook has found his associative sound but maintains a crucial balance across the album with versatility that promises a bright future for Beatowls.
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