Black Marble is one of the latest and greatest additions to the Brooklyn synthwave lexicon. Their stark, alienating textures cloister a vaguely hopeful intensity, like a lone and distant rhythm echoing from the hull of a lost deep sea vessel. Reminiscent of early DIY synth recordings, which pitted emotional undercurrents against wan dystopian landscapes, Black Marble’s sound struggles to squeeze blood from monolithic concrete.
Collaborators Ty Kube and Chris Stewart take their inspiration from a disparate group of past musicians who dared to mix punk ethics with cold electronics, resulting in an enigmatic, handmade style that recalls the isolated-but-uplifting feel of early European minimal and coldwave music. Triumphantly bleak but undeniably infectious, Black Marble's debut EP Weight Against the Door arrives, appropriately, at the height of winter.