Marxy (W. David Marx) is an American living in Tokyo, Japan. His second album Forty Years From Now was recorded over the span of three years in Japanese apartments, Tokyo rehearsal spaces, a Manhattan living room, an Astoria, Queens bedroom, and the legendary Brooklyn recording studio Studio G. As in his critically-lauded debut album Kyoshu Nostalgia, Marxy surrounds his catchy pop melodies with musical references to classic sounds refracted through modern musical technology. The songs built around baroque harpsichord riffs (”Broke Into Our Hearts”,”Slouching Towards Bethlehem”) and transistor organ solos (”To Save Ourselves”) make Forty Years From Now often reminiscent of The Zombies and other psych pop of the late 1960s, but the digital edits, prominent analog synth lines, pulse bass, and chopped up beats drive the tracks into new territory, where past and future intersect.
Forty Years From Now quickly jumps between glitch influenced pop (”See Saw”), lo-tech garage pop (”Cotillion”), campfire sing-a-long (”Dippy Dave”), gritty synth rock (”Tachikogi”), and powerhouse rock anthem (”To Save Ourselves”). The synth squelch-breakbeat jam of “Cat vs. Mouse” features a guest lead vocal from U.T. - singer of Japanese art-pop girl band Kiiiiiii - and intricate production work by Pandatone.
Although the songs each have their own distinct sound, the album is held together as a single work by the central lyrical concept introduced in the opener “The Lincoln Brigades” and abruptly settled in the closer “The Lincoln Battalions (Reprise)”: we are burdened by history. Marxy shows how this can be true with old girlfriends, old photos, old pop songs, past political failures, past political successes, or obsessions with former pop idols. Forty years ago, no one would have predicted a pop music world still operating on almost the exact same rules of musical composition, but here we are, still wandering in the desert.
download “Cat vs. Mouse”.
stream the album from last.fm
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Critics had this to say about Marxy’s first album Kyoshu Nostalgia:
“Kyoshu Nostalgia, triumphs in expertly updating diner-era pop by
fusing it with elements it has rarely, if ever, been exposed to. And
what seems rather simple at face value reveals itself to be heartfelt,
calculated, and complex. The feelings are universal and so is the
music.” - Stylus Magazine
“[Marxy is] a composer who can stuff a 90-second pop miniature with
more ideas than many of his peers offer on an entire album.” -
Splendid Magazine
“Imagine for a moment that the Beach Boys were brought up in Tokyo.
It’s bizarre, unique and completely unexpected. A curio not to be
missed.” - Fat Planet
“I give Kyoshu Nostalgia First Class Honors.” - PopMatters
