AN NCS PREMIERE: OLDEST SEA — “THE MACHINES THAT MADE US OLD”

Our site’s name states a rule, but it has always been more preferential than fanatical, more tongue-in-cheek than belligerently adamant. And so we make exceptions, but still, they must be earned.

And now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, we can begin presenting one of those well-earned exceptions — not just well-earned, but too astonishing to brush away.

The centerpiece of the long song you’re about to hear, and the key feature that makes it both spellbinding and emotionally crushing, is the voice of Samantha Marandola, who with her husband Andrew are the duo behind the band Oldest Sea from rural New Jersey, and whose new album A Birdsong, A Ghost will be released on December 1st by Darkest Records.

The song’s name is “The Machines That Made Us Old“. It’s a wholly transportive experience of contrasts and complements, a union of the ethereal and the staggeringly heavy. The spell it casts is heart-breaking and chilling, but in the music it feels like the bedrock of the earth is heaving and fracturing too.

Over the song’s long course (during which minutes pass but time seems to stand still), Samantha‘s vocals explore a wide range of sound and feeling. Her voice echoes like the wail of a ghost lost in a void, soars in stricken passion, quavers like a ragged soul splintering, almost cracks in pain. Sometimes it seamlessly melds with the instrumentation, but it stands well out from it as well.

And for those ornery types who think we’ve completely betrayed our site’s name, in the song’s penultimate movement her voice stunningly rips apart in primal screams that feel like claws and knives have cut through from the inside out.

Yet as astonishing as the vocals are, there’s more to the song. Different people will interpret the musical experience differently, but to this listener the opening feels like drifting alone across a calm and beautiful sea, lost in tragic thoughts. By the end, it feels like we’re on that sea again, but now bearing witness to the splendor of a sunrise.

In between are other experiences. The scratchy twang of a lonesome guitar. The mystical shimmer of synths. A bass that heaves and moans from subterranean depths. Drums that go off like gunshots and bombs. Guitars that also wail. Other synths that sound like the lament of massed strings.

All together they’re capable of carrying a listener far away to distant shores, and then leaving you lost there for long after the song has ended.

 

 

We also want to share the previously released surreal video for “Sacred Destruction“, another song off the new album. It was created by Philadelphia sculptor/video maker Dylan Pecora, and might remind people of the works of Matthew Barney or David Lynch.

At the time of its premiere Samantha said about it: “The song is about letting go of a former self. Dylan‘s video captures everything that’s meant to be conveyed in that song, and I really appreciate their surrealist approach. They found a way to seamlessly unify song and film so that they’re essentially one unit.”

Samantha and Andrew have stated that their influences include doom bands such as Mournful Congregation and Shape of Despair, composers such as John Carpenter and William Basinski, and iconic vocalists such as Björk and Roy Orbison. People who are fans of those influences are likely to find the album well worth exploring too.

A Birdsong, A Ghost was engineered and mixed by the Marandolas and mastered by Dan Lowndes (Leviathan, Unearthly Trance). As noted earlier, it will be released on December 1st by Darkest Records, the label owned by Jordan Cozza of sludge-doom greats Hush. Samantha Marandola describes it this way:

“It’s an expression of feminine rage, grief, personal transformation. It’s kind of just one long primal scream for me.”

PRE-ORDER:
https://oldestsea1.bandcamp.com/album/a-birdsong-a-ghost

OLDEST SEA:
https://linktr.ee/Oldestsea
https://www.facebook.com/oldestsea