Article By: Pat ‘Riot’ Whitaker ‡ Edited By: Leanne Ridgeway
Chicago’s Marmora have some interesting backstory to the band’s origins. They go like this:
“In 2099, three brothers from Chicago banded together to form Marmora and set off on a rock & roll space odyssey. They traveled through time, searching for a fourth member to help them spread their gospel of rock, love, blues, and ultimate rips. They found him in the year 2015.
Together, they’re ready to make love to the cosmos.“
And indeed they are doing exactly that on their earlier 2017 3-song EP release, ‘Criterion‘. The “they” in Marmora are those previously mentioned three brothers, Alejandro Salazar (bass), Ulysses Salazar (drums), and Zaid Salazar (guitar), the time-traveling trio. The fourth dude they located in the Year 2015 is Allan Cardenas (voice, guitar, synths) and together, they excel at unleashing some heavy-duty cosmic rock.
From the heady haziness of the introductory title track, “Criterion“, the universe expands to welcome us. Airy vocals, laid-back jamming, synaptic drumming are all utilized to hold things in stasis for a phenomenal start. The timed turns toward the heavier side of things are stellar as well, offset by some sleekly superb guitar playing.
“Apathy” rolls out with thunderous drums and an immediate run-up into decidedly more aggressive attitude and energy. The music is matched by the vocals as the song reaches a quick state of a more noise-y or post-rock type feels in its content.
From there, the final track, “Flowers In Your Garden“, also takes on another chameleon-like state of southern metal styling. Crunchy riffs, barreling rhythms and seemingly real-life lyrics all lie within. There is no question that Marmora covers a lot of aerospace in a relatively short span on this EP.
At less than thirteen minutes in playing time, ‘Criterion‘ provides us a still-spectacular standard by which to gauge the band. Their second official release (after 2013’s ‘Chelas In The Morning’), but first with Cardenas on board, leaves you with high desires for a proper full-length for the quartet to strut their sonic stuff in a lengthier capacity.
Until that time comes, dig Marmora‘s ‘Criterion‘ below or find it here.
