With a dozen people listed as band members, it’s not surprising that the tracks from North Hollywood ensemble the Marches‘ 2008 debut CD, 4 A.M. Is the New Midnight display a dizzying array of vocals, instruments, and musical styles.
The Marches playfully mix genres, sometimes within the same song, melding cold, robotic electronica (”4 A.M. Is the New Midnight”) with glowing, warm Motown horns (”Bad Touch” and “Victoria”), throwing in a Latin beat in here (”So Ill”), a vocoder there (”4 A.M. Is the New Midnight,” “Rudolf Valentino,” and “Bobby Brown”), a splash of classical piano (”Sometimes Sex Isn’t About the Money”), and occasionally a hint of swing-era jazz a la Squirrel Nut Zippers (”Need Me Back” and “Don’t Love With Your Eyes”).
Ringleader Richard Conti alternates with the several other vocalists in the group to produce songs that shift kaliedescopically from track to track, rearranging the band’s elements to produce fascinatingly diverse combinations. I kept changing my mind about which song I wanted to post, but settled on this one with a video of a live performance of one of my other favorites. Zip over to our blogroll buddy Lost In Your Inbox, and you’ll find another song, “So Ill.”
The Marches: Cold Hands Warm Heart from 4 A.M. Is the New Midnight (2008)
Video: “Sometimes Sex Isn’t About the Money”
The Marches provided a cover of Adele’s “Cold Shoulder” for the Coke Machine Glow Fantasy Covers Project 2008.
MySpace | Website | Label: Satellite/Star Records
Buy: Amazon.com, iTunes
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