I:Scintilla, Marrow 1, EP (2012)

Tracklist:

1. Drag Along

2. Girl U Want

3. Ammunition

4. Spit it Out

5. The Shake

Nearly a decade old, here are an outfit now thoroughly embedded in the industrial/electro matrix. But ah, you thought you knew someone… Amidst the bone-crunching bashes and brain-zapping bowzers of their genre, I:Scintilla have decided to release a whitewashed, whittled-down, and zoned-out acoustic production of four covers accompanied by a single original track (that track, if you’re wondering, is Drag Along). The indignant retches of the faithful are almost audible. So why would anyone want to take notice of Marrow 1?

The reason: this is exactly what an EP should be. I:Scintilla have stepped boldly from their comfort zone, into a wold of experimentation and reinvention. Armed with a squeaky-clean canvas, they offer up a colourful palate of different sounds, moods, and tones with the aim of putting a distinctive stamp on both their own and others’ work. And, on both fronts, they come up trumps. An acoustic guitar-vocal combination strips the music back to the bare wood, in the process revealing all-together unexpected shades of talent and subtlety.

Through calmed tempos and sparse textures, there’s space and time for it all to shine through. Brittany Bindrim’s soft, bubbling vocal tones wander with both a spirit of freedom and a conscientious restraint, now comfortable in their mid-range, then straining to low and high notes, signs, perhaps, of her own limitations, but always refreshing in their heartfelt honesty. Guitar chords roll gently in the background, occasionally breaking out into jungle-jangle solos and lilting riffs (see tracks 1 and 5, respectively). But this is no simple two-tone album, with gentle string and percussive backing breaking out, most notably on the outstanding track 4, Spit it Out.

Regardless of these little innovations, though, this is a record at its most effective when it stays true to its acoustic remit. On one side, there’s an increasingly frustrating production flaw – the only one, at that – in the use of smudged echoes on the vocals, which are employed sometimes carefully, with some nice effect, but, at other times, indiscriminately, imposing themselves as unwanted feedback. The softer tones and cooler colours offered in contrast are able to recover a depth and subtlety to a number of the tracks. Ammunition, somewhat rushed and incomplete in the original, has been overhauled by its creators; treating others’ work with no less care, they have completely deconstructed Devo’s Girl U Want, rebuilding it from the ground up with the aid of new melodic lines, tempo, and time-signature.

It’s a timely reminder that revisiting old work – both own and others’ – need not come at the expense of originality. The covers which dominate the EP are so well constructed as to bring out a sensitivity which did not even appear in their originals, strikingly in the case of Girl U Want, whose lyrics are revocalised with startling clarity: “She sings from somewhere you can’t see/She sits in the top of the greenest tree”; who would have imagined such poetry lay behind the original?

None of this, of course, is likely to enthuse fanatics. But to those approaching this work with an open and indulging mind, there’s plenty to be enjoyed. I:Scintilla have courageously pushed their own boundaries, in the process recreating and rediscovering old gems. And, in twenty-something minutes, they’ve captured the best spirit of the EP: this is exactly the sort of project that more bands should consider.

 

Production: 4/5

Lyrics: 4/5*

Album Cohesion: N/A

Music: 7/10

Percentage Score: 75/100

* as there are hardly any original lyrics, this score is based exclusively on their vocalisation.

http://alfamatrix.bandcamp.com/album/marrow-1
http://www.iscintilla.com/
http://www.facebook.com/iscintilla