Album Review: Pain To Power by Maruja

Sometimes it's a weapon that cuts toward others, sometimes it carves inward. But when it is turned outward - at systems or a hand over the mouth - it can become something closer to light. Music is especially a tool like this. The right artist or band can forge it into a knife at the throat of those who profit from suffering.

Full Review >>

If you're keyed into the post-rock scene - fuck it, even if you aren't keyed into the post-rock scene - then Maruja ought to be a name you've heard. For a band that's only released a handful of EPs, their reputation is already towering enough for them to have graced the cover of NME , signed to legendary independent label Music for Nations, and somewhat bizarrely won the admiration of Louis Tomlinson . And it's a reputation that rests on more than a bit of clever marketing: those EPs are genuinely brilliant, a dizzying amalgam of atmospheric saxophone improv, effects-laden guitars and emotive rhythms that call to mind early Godspeed You! Black Emperor, or the pioneering experiments of Mark Hollis.

Full Review >>