Reviews / Album

Take a chance, you just might enjoy it.

Anticipation for this collaboration by these revered prog masterminds is suffocating.

Margins have created an articulate, atmospheric album that soaks the listener in a nuance-filled landscape of sound, space and direction that becomes more intriguing with each listen.

"Ash Grunwald’s latest record is a haphazard but deeply intriguing combination of various genres, beats and rhythms that are coupled with more potent lyricism than Grunwald usually indulges in, setting the record apart from his previous releases."

"The band’s creative ability to weave so much with so little is a reminder for any aspiring musician that you don’t necessarily need the best equipment, or bandmates or even anything bigger than an inner-city bathroom, to make enduring music to wake up to, fall asleep to and to be completely embraced by."

The best thing about this collaboration is that it is much more than two like-minded, similar-sounding fellas having a jam at home.

"While [Victoria] Legrand suggests that Bloom, like the budding of new plant life, is “only temporary,” it seems unlikely that the band’s efforts on this album will be so fleeting, and they’ve certainly created a sound fit for all seasons."

Where studio-backed outfits would persevere to get that extra depth, New Estate just nudge it over the line, content with letting the lo-fi ambience speak for itself.

"The title track is deeply distressing in the most emotionally loaded of ways. Its poignant lyricism and varied, almost temperamental, vocal melody give it a complexity and sophistication that truly sets it apart from the rest."

Upon first listen, Wigmore’s voice may seem rather mono-tonal and possibly even a little irritating. However by Poison... her vocal diversity begins to show through.