Get Out Of Your Stretch Jeans Honey....

Marek - Get Me Some Loving

Marek - Get Out Of Your Stretch Jeans Honey

I'm lost for words.....
Well almost.
It's like driving past a car crash... you know you shouldn't look but you just have too.
Listening to Marek has the same effect on me, I'm not sure if I should be listening, but I just can't help myself....
I say I'm not sure if I should be listening because some of the songs seem incredibly personal, veering from the "isn't love great" to the "I'm so pissed off with everything" lyrics...

stolen from the review of the album on Niesom....

"Marek, a crooner in the purest sense, often comes off as some pathetic sadsack, moaning his way through his emotional problems. But from truest pain comes the most artliest art, or some such biz, and that is most definitely what we have here, art. Not the embarrassing stuff your "friends" make, but genuine, quality artistic creation. Marek's songs are suffused with a stern-faced fragility, a strength and courage that contradicts the depressed demeanor of our fair singer. Marek does not wallow, and does not embrace, but matter-of-factly acknowledges in disturbing detail the unseemly nature of his emotional and romantic entanglements."

Put better than I ever could.

Musically there's pretty much the kitchen sink in there...
Suicide, Will Oldham, Bob Dylan, Kraftwerk, Smog, Nick Drake, Syd Barrett (especially his total disregard for the length of a bar and song structure), they're all there, and yet at the same time sounding like none of them.
Forget about Spector's "Wall of Sound", and welcome to Marek's "Wall of Hiss", as he seems to wallow in the gloriously homemade sound he creates, half the album is firmly lodged in the Lo-Fi category, and the rest is incredibly Lo-Fi...
And it's bloody ace.

The first track is taken from his "It's These Magic Moments That I'm Living For" album released on Niesom records, which will take you on a journey veering from old blues and old electronic music to protest songs, ballads and beyond....
Whilst the second track "Get Out Of Your Stretch Jeans Honey" Is an older Marek original "Stretch Jeans" given the remix treatment for ekw 14,90, an Austrian collective of artists making very strange music which was featured on the versandhauskatalogprogrammmusik compilation, also on Niesom.

And here's Marek's twisted take on the Dido classic(?), which can also be found on the Magic Moments album...

Marek - White Flag

And then there's this from the album too...

Marek - Run With Me

See what I mean.

The album is not always a joy to listen to, and why should it be, there's a lot of feeling going on in this record... but it is rewarding.
And if you can get hold of some of his earlier self released work then do so, you'll find a whole world full of casio's... and hiss!



Buy - Marek - It's These Magic Moments That I'm Living For
Buy - versandhauskatalogprogrammmusik
Visit - Marek
Visit - Niesom

Simon
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