Studio-based experimentation from the Polish duo of Marmur on their Elektroniczbe Systemy (ROPE WORM RW7).
Artur Rumiński is a prolific guitarist and one who pro-actively puts himself about; in 2020 we knew about five bands he was in, and that list has now increased to eight – Arrm, Furia, Grieving, Gruzja, Moral Breach, Sun For Miles, Thaw, and Mentor – in which he performs as Raum’s Chord – have all benefitted from his six-string benevolence and largesse, and he’s created music within many diverse genres from Black Metal, hardcore punk, sludge to ambient drone. Macio Moretti is the other half of Marmur and is also the drummer in LXMP, a lively Polish anything-goes duo whose Zony W Pracy from Lado ABC is a fave listen and regular radio repeat at TSP.
Well, Marmur started out with a cassette release in 2023 called Doom Service for the Szara Reneta label in Bustryk, a label which specialises in field recordings as well as experimental music. Those who missed the original release will be happy to learn that Rope Worm reissued it in 2025. After that build-up, gotta say that Elektroniczbe Systemy isn’t quite the mad blend of Black Metal guitar monstrosity and spirited drumming I was hoping for, but even so these fragmentary exercises in guitar and synth noise-generation lead the listener into some interesting conundrums and tensions, like our ears are being handed puzzle pieces that don’t quite fit. At three tracks, there isn’t quite enough of the music to grasp the overall shape of Marmur’s ideas; pursuing an uncertain and elusive goal on each piece, the musicians tend to meander for twice as long as they should, and yet still fail to draw any meaningful conclusions from their drawn-out conversations.
Fave cut is ‘Objazd’ for its sense of urgency, which I find lacking in the rest of the album; perhaps this was the moment in the session when the stimulants started to kick in. (03/10/2025)