Marveline makes smart and melodic rock tunes out of Sydney, Australia. It’s the vehicle for the songs of Pete Marley, one half of the writing duo behind Sydney’s retro-pop masters The Nature Strip, and a bass-player in several other Sydney outfits. In May 2020, Marveline released the Savoury-Toothed Tiger album. From the pulsing synth-rock of Monkey Mind, via the guitar riffery of Turpentine to the Bhutan-inspired Magic Umbrellar, with a detour to the sweet acoustic menace of Go To Sleep, Savoury-Toothed Tiger ranges happily across the blurry boundaries of rock, power-pop & atmospheric instrumentals.
The mix of electronic textures with electric guitars might bring to mind The National or even Radiohead, while the rock and melody points towards the likes of Swervedriver or Even. Our Parade was the next single released in Feb 2021, followed by the acoustic and sparse Fly By Instruments in June.
There’s no one style Marveline sticks to - whatever works for the songs. Though they usually spring from guitars, any rock noise from the last 50 years might be used. Marveline now releases Evil Worm on Dec 10 - It’s a slice of melodic industrial pop: Marley likes to think of it this way: “Numan & Bowie are walking around Berlin in 1977. They step into a smoky middle-Eastern restaurant. I’m in the corner with a tape echo & primitive synthesisers smoking a hookah.”Music blog Backseat Mafia says: “You think of the cavernous electronic thunder of Gary Numan and Tubeway Army with the attitude and sneering swagger of the Sex Pistols all wrapped up in the melodies that would do XTC proud. For, despite all the darkness, Marley still has that unerring ear for the pop melody and the ascendant chorus..