Marvin the Robot sounds sorta like KIND OF LIKE SPITTING… spitting BLOOD, that is! Think of all those early Saddle Creek Records artists and their aversions to singing in tune, and apply their collective, sustained distain to pretty much every other instrument in MtR’s arsenal, as well; excepting Marvin here has sublimated his wayward, atonal energies into kicking out juxtaposing, noisy, impeccable stop-on-a-dime rhythmic phrasings to keep your attention rapt. Clearly, he knows how to avoid being too melodious AND play with too much confidence, so he chooses the latter, kicking that groovy currency into overdrive to make up for debts rung up by being so ostentatiously unharmonious. As in, this album is borderline noise-rock, but with too strong of roots along the anti-folk Great Plains to quite take that label to seed. If you thought Connor Oberst or the Kinsellas were delightfully obnoxious, just you fucking wait!
https://marvintherobot.bandcamp.com/album/psalms-for-the-sexually-disenfranchised
--Jacob An Kittenplan
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