Last week saw the release of the the new album, Telling It Like It Is’ from Denmark collective Marching Church. It’s a diverse work that skirts genres and decades but is more thematically cohesive than previous efforts. It’s characterised with helpings of dark tinged rock lashed with helpings of post-punk and pop with subtle slithers of country, soul, funk, swing, jazz and traditional influences thrown in (have I left anything out?) Essentially beginning in 2011 as the solo project of Iceage vocalist Elias Bender Rønnenfelt, along the way he’s collected essentially a who’s who of Denmark’s independent music scene, on this occasion again joined by Iceage guitarist Johan S. Weith together with Hand of Dust’s Bø Hoyer Hansen, Lower’s bassist Kristian Emdal, drummer Anton Rothstein and on trumpet Jakob Emil Amdahl.
Lyrically, it’s a heavy affair that reflects Rønnenfelt’s maturity in age and outlook reflecting life’s vagaries and uncertainties and exploring the gritty side of urbanity and the power of natural phenomena. The dexterity on offer musically makes the record a sumptuous if not slightly uneasy affair where a myriad of restless grooves, almost menacingly at times, ring around an array of percussion and instrumentation provided by members of The Stargaze Orchestra and Choir of Young Believers.
A couple of week’s back saw the release of the Jimmy Durante video for the second single, the hot sauntering dark rock of ‘Lion’s Den’. Check out the disorienting urbanity below. Telling It Like It Is is out now on Sacred Bones. Get the vinyl here.
Lion’s Den
Marching Church (DEN)
From the album, ‘Telling Like It Is’, Sacred Bones.
Marching Church Facebook
Audio Stream
Official Video