EP REVIEW: MARIKA HACKMAN

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BLIND
RELEASED: 9TH DECEMBER 2013, DIRTY HIT

When a dream slowly merges with a nightmare and beauty becomes intertwined with horror, that’s where you’ll find ‘Sugar Blind’; the new EP from Marika Hackman.

There is a certain serendipity about this young solo artist from Devon. Somewhere on SoundCloud is a collection of her music and lurking in the depths of YouTube, you’ll find her acoustic covers of almost every track. And it was these acoustic adaptations that really showed Marika’s magic. ‘Bath is Black’ sounds truly enchanting coming from just this girl and her guitar in a tunnel somewhere in the Northeast, yet switching over to the final recording always seemed to underwhelm.

But the intelligence of this new EP is that it takes what is best about Marika’s music and brings it to the forefront of every song. The soulful storytelling of wandering guitars and sombre tones in Marika’s vocals are now reinforced by the twinkling undercurrents of electronic reverb; rather than getting lost in it.

Recording four tracks with Charlie Andrew (that talented fella who helped Alt-J rustle together ‘An Awesome Wave’) was always going to produce some incredible songs, but this quartet are all quality. Every song has an effortless balance of both melancholy and beauty. ‘Itchy Teeth’ combines ethereal, stripped back instruments with lyrics that carry a poetic romanticism and ‘Wolf’ tells a brooding dark fairy-tale with a subtle folk flourish.

‘Sugar Blind’ is released through Dirty Hit on December 9th and if that won’t get you through a cold Monday morning, nothing will!

December dates:
Tuesday 10th – The Hope, Brighton
Wednesday 11th – Lexington, London
Thursday 12th – Portland Arms, Cambridge
Friday 13th – Gullivers, Manchester
Saturday 14th – The Birdcage, Bristol