Buzzin Music Blog

Scarlett Marshals' Memory EP

Scarlett Marshals – Memory EP single review

Scarlett Marshals are an unsigned British three piece, who rose from the ashes of north-western group Ad Nauseam.

In 2004, long-time collaborators Alex Harris and Craig Atkinson joined up with bassist Dave Knight and they named the new group after some Family Fortune contestants that Les Dennis had just announced on the show, the Scarlett-Marshal family.

The band independently released the Patience EP in 2007 (available to buy on iTunes), and they have just finished recording their next 7-track record, Memory EP. Scarlett Marshals are offering the EP up for free download.

The tracks were self-produced and recorded in Staffordshire over a period of four weeks and aim to incorporate the group’s musical leanings towards such contemporary groups as The Twilight Sad and Grizzly Bear.

The EP, however, takes these influences and places them firmly in the rock and grunge brackets. Memory EP, in fact, resembles the Foo Fighters or Smashing Pumpkins more closely. The skuzzy, minute-long ‘Introduction’ sets out what the Scarlett Marshals are about. It is clinically rhythmical, with bass, guitar and drums all synchronised.

And this continues on second track, on which Atkinson’s vocals really resemble Dave Grohl. The musicianship on this track also deserves recognition, too, with the song shunning traditional structures in favour of series of varying sections. Really, the individual songs, which generally come in at around the three or four minute mark, are just microcosms for the dynamic diversity of the entire album.

Third track ‘The Measured Approach’ is similar in style, but it is on the following ‘It Shouldn’t Take A Genius’ that the musical talent of Scarlett Marshals is best exemplified. The reverb on the doubled vocals provides a distance that compliments the clean, picked guitars. The finale with sliding guitars and far-off vocals provide an excellent finish to what is the outstanding song of the Memory EP.

One of the best riffs on the EP and some great background noise appear on interlude ‘A Speech upon the Exile of David Knight’. It is a shame that they are not put to better use in a song somewhere, but Scarlett Marshals’ reluctance to exploit certain riffs proves why their EP hangs together so well as a whole.

Six minute album closer ‘Commit to Memory’ finishes the EP off in psychedelic style and shows a band that is at its best when exploiting this field.

The Memory EP shows that Scarlett Marshals are a promising band as rhythmically intelligent as Battles and as grungy as Smashing Pumpkins.

Look out for tour dates and listen to Scarlett Marshals’ songs on their MySpace.