Get ready for a potent dose of pure, crystalline pop from an emerging force on the UK indie scene as we introduce you to Mari Dangerfield and her debut album‘Love And Other Machines’. After a series of singles over the past few years, through which she’s glided from strength to strength, this rising indie music whiz is ready to present us a whole dozen synth-driven alternative pop tunes, out on February 3 – on CD and digitally – via the dynamic Undertones-backed UK labelDimple Discs. We think the world is ready for this.
Recalling the best of such artists as Lowell, Chvrches, Kate Nash, Saint Etienne and Dubstar, West Londoner Mari Dangerfield is big on the DIY ethic, having self-produced an album that she wrote and performed largely on her own, with a few guests in for good measure. Highly unique and hard to pigeon-hole (hello, we dig that) her version of indie pop is catchy as hell, so much so that this album is a definite case of “all killer, no filler”. This music is sonically pleasing, lyrically clever, easily accessible, largely danceable and totally relatable. If that is not an endorsement, I don’t know what is.
Broadly a concept album, ‘Love And Other Machines’ explores the connections between emotions and technology and is filled with love songs that use objects and gadgets as songwriting metaphors. Dangerfield made her first appearance on the music scene after winning a Mute Records video competition. In 2017, she also won a competition created by French composer Yann Tiersen , for which she covered his song ‘Porz Goret’, winning in the Best Non-Piano category.
Building on a string of self-released singles and videos since 2018, she has been able to build a devoted audience, both online and for her unique live shows. Already something of a polymath, she records, arranges and produces all her own material, as well as designing the visual content for artwork, new media and video. She’s also known for re-popularising the Stylophone, which features in her early singles and her live set.
Thematically, many of the songs are connected to technology (whether from exhaustion of its use or anguish from the way it highlights loneliness, dependency or one’s psychological condition), with other songs about love and relationships.‘Love Machine’ is the anchor that binds those themes tightly together, exploring how love can be a mechanical process (certainly on the biological and psychological side of things). ‘Coping Mechanism’, ‘Virtually’, ‘Screen Time’ and‘Webcam’ continue this exploration.
“This album is so much more than just a collection of songs to me – It’s a sort of record of the first few years of my career, and an even longer period of my life. It reveals so much about me, personally and professionally. It feels like my artist’s palette has been formed. If you really listen to these songs, you can get to know me on quite a deep level. There’s a lot of my reality embedded within the concept and the stories. I would have been lost without making music. It saved my mental wellbeing,” says Mari Dangerfield.
This album is as diverse in sound as it feels in how it’s travelled with me as I’ve developed as an individual over the past three years: No song sounds the same and, as I’m sure you’ll agree, it feels like I’m in a very different place at the end from where I was when it began. Undeniably, some of the songs delve into some quite personal struggles of mine and were inspired by my time in therapy between 2015 and 2018, as I came out of some incredibly dark places. I was so lucky to have been gifted all this time to learn about myself and my inner wounds, and not only improve as a person, but to be left with the tools to continue to reflect on my struggles, as undoubtedly, they would and do return in different guises.”
As of February 3, ‘Love And Other Machines’ will be available both on CD and digitally. It can be ordered viaBandcamp or elsewhere from all fine online music platforms, including Apple Music and Spotify. On February 10, Dangerfield celebrates the album’s release with a live performance at 229 (at 229 Great Portland Street) in London with support from FHUR and the Kingston Stylophone Orchestra. Tickets are available at http://bit.ly/3D7zQF3
[bandcamp width=400 height=472 album=2829313352 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 artwork=small]CREDITS
Track 2, 4, 7, 8, 12 – Produced by Mari Dangerfield
Tracks 1, 9, 10 – Produced by Mari Dangerfield and Jamie Macneal
Track 6 – Produced by Mari Dangerfield and Leigh Kemp
Track 3 – Produced by Mari Dangerfield, Alberto Hernandez and Grgur Raic
Track 5 – Produced by Mari Dangerfield and Charlie Westropp
Track 1, 9, 10 – Mixed by Jamie Macneal
Track 4, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12 – Mixed and mastered by Diogo Almeida
Track 2, 3 – Mixed and mastered by Grgur Raic
Track 5 – Mixed and mastered by Charlie Westropp
Track 1, 9, 10 – Mastered by Katie Tavini
All songs written and performed by Mari Dangerfield, except
Track 1 – Performed by Mari Dangerfield and Jamie Macneal
Track 5 – Written and performed by Mari Dangerfield and Charlie Westropp
Track 11- Performed by Mari Dangerfield, Hytallo Yuri and Roy Salmon Weinheber (the latter two recorded at City Studios, Lisbon)
Mari Dangerfield photo by Paula Llagostera
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