Rising project Marital Bed feels like a throwback to the golden age of online music discovery. Arriving with little by way of biographical information or context beyond a cryptic Instagram page, the band instead lets the music speak for itself. The kind of act which might have emerged through the ether of the blogosphere in the early 2000s, announcing itself with a punch and riding the wave of buzz as it spread through word of mouth. The indie music ecosystem might be a very different beast these days, but in a world of excessive information and carefully crafted press cycles, it is heartening to find acts willing to position themselves as bolts from the blue.
And, if new single ‘Ghost’ is anything to go by, this more mysterious mode of operation is the perfect match for the Marital Bed style. Landing somewhere between dream pop and art rock, the track is playful, edgy and charged with a mischevious personality. A poltergeist in musical form, flitting between haunting atmosphere and fits of volatile action, picking things up and throwing them around for the very joy of making chaos. But there’s a wordly dimension to the track too, its villainous spirit not only pertaining to the unquiet dead. Rather those greedy men who sell their souls while still kicking, tearing a path of destruction through the world in their wake, with women most often left to pick up the pieces, supposing they themselves survive the violence inflicted upon them.
‘Ghost’ is out now and available from the usual places.