Album Review: Marcus Whale - Inland Sea

Marcus Whale (Collarbones) has made an impressive artistic statement with his debut solo album.

Released digitally, with an accompanying physical book, Inland Sea explores queer and colonial Australian history through a dark and oblique gauze of minimal electronica. It veers between militant, tech-heavy drums and glitchy whirs of atmospheric sounds that can draw a timeline back through artists such as Bjork and Photek. There's an ominous and heavy-lidded tone to Whale's soulful voice as he builds layers of affected vocals, like mantras floating over the dystopian landscape below — all the while searching for answers and self-fulfilment in the modern world.