Name: Fast Idol
Brand: Black Marble

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

SBR278lp

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Colour

Black

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music US

Limited edition

Release date

2021-10-22

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier US

Secre­tly

Tax rate US

Sales:8.875

UPC / Barcode

843563139783

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Total Cap

1 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / black

SBR278lp-C1

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Gold

Golden Nugget Vinyl

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Extended format: Yes

843563139790

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "843563139790"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

1 / Extended format: Yes / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / gold

SBR278cd

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "SBR278cd"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

843563139851

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "843563139851"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Black Marble

Genre US

Synthwave

Label US

Sacred Bones Records

Black Marble is a coldwave/synthpop/post-punk music project from the USA. Formed in March 2011 in Brooklyn, New York, Black Marble started as a duo consisting of Chris Stewart and Ty Kube. However, in early 2016, Chris Stewart decided to relocate to Los Angeles while Ty Kube remained in Brooklyn. Since then, Black Marble has become a solo project for Chris Stewart, with occasional session live musicians joining him on stage.

The current lineup of Black Marble includes Chris Stewart as the vocalist and multi-instrumentalist. He has been part of the project since its inception in 2011.

Prior to becoming a solo act, Ty Kube contributed to Black Marble as the synthesizer and keyboard player from 2011 until 2016.

Vinyl variants, bonus material and signed editions exclusively available from Rough Trade.

On Fast Idol, LA-based Black Marble reaches back through time to connect with the forgotten bedroom kids of the analogue era, the halcyon days of icy hooks and warbly synths. Harmonies are piped in across the expanse of space, and lyrics capture conversations that seem to come from another room, repeat an accusation overheard, or speak as if in sleep of interpersonal struggles distilled down to one subconscious phrase. At the same time, percussive elements feel forward and cut through the mix with toms counting off the measures like a lost tribe broadcasting through the bass and tops of a basement club soundsystem.

Melodies roll with the fizz and charm of Jacno and phrases repeated are electric torchlight ballads sung after hours in William Gibson’s San Francisco. ‘Somewhere’ opens in sombre herald, before dropping into a fast freeway tempo; the glassy synths and crisp beats cut through the anxious moods on ‘Bodies’ and ‘Try’ sits in a lineage with cult bands like Asylum Party. ‘The Garden’ is a journey through a post-apocalyptic cityscape, earthed by the pulse of a drum machine whereas ‘Ship To Shore’ could be a lost Oppenheimer Analysis B-side, and the album’s closer ‘Brighter and Bigger’ catches a sentiment like The Dadacomputer has learned to feel emotions. He captures the loneliness of Ray Bradbury’s atomic-era sci-fi and the apocalyptic but revolutionary spirit of Godard’s Sympathy for the Devil, as in ‘Preoccupation’, the beating heart of the album, which conjures ambivalent scenes of an empty world and the comfort to be found in a shared humanity.

Emerging from the early 2000s New York synth scene, Black Marble carried on the tradition of early synthwave pioneers like Martin Dupont and Modern Art who repurposed synths once reserved for expensive studios and stadium rock superstars. Seeking to channel this spirit, Black Marble recalls the gauzy tape wow and flutter of The Membranes and the warbling VCO of Futurisk, carrying on a sound that seeks to channel the future while imprinting residue of the past.

Fast Idol

Music US

Buy Black Marble - Fast Idol (Vinyl, CD) now from Rough Trade - independent purveyors of great music, since 1976.