Marram
Sun Choir
Release Date: Jan 20, 2014
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Indie Pop
Record label: Transgressive
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Album Review: Sun Choir by Marram
Excellent, Based on 4 Critics
Based on rating 9/10
Released as half of the two-part Everything is New charity release (in aid of Dalit 'untouchable' children in southeast India), Marram's Sun Choir LP comes off just as ambitious on wax as it does on paper. Recorded over a six-year span and in three separate continents, Sun Choir features over 200 instruments, full orchestras and the Dalit Light of Love Children's Choir performing alongside guests like Jarvis Cocker, Owen Pallett, doseone and famed author Irvine Welsh. The resulting eleven tracks are gorgeous, adventurous and downright pleasurable, as Marram utilizes the children's choir as textural samples and chorus anchors.
Based on rating 8/10
In January 2014, Edinburgh-based music collective Marram released the LP Sun Choir, an 11-track art pop concept album composed for and featuring the children of the Light of Love Children's Home. The album features contributions from a variety of well-known rock and indie musicians like Jarvis Cocker, White Hinterland, Owen Pallett (Arcade Fire, Final Fantasy), and Scottish folksinger Margaret Bennett. The lush, colorful songs combine orchestral arrangements, choirs, drums, and a variety of singers in an ambitious multinational pop collaboration.
Based on rating 4/5
Years in the making, ‘Sun Choir’ finds Marram, the music arm of Scottish arts collective Transgressive North, recording the voices of children at a home for underprivileged kids in India. They then use the samples in tracks that veer between alt.pop and trip-hop. On ‘Valuables’ –which features former Clouddead rapper/producer doseone and lyrics from Irvine Welsh – there’s even all-out techno.
Based on rating 7/10
Sun Choir was created by Edinburgh-based band Marram, and is one of two musical releases which belong to the 'Everything is New Project'. The project developed by Scottish arts collective, Transgressive North, was inspired by the charity Scottish Love in Action (SLA) and their work with Dalit children in India. The 11-track LP opens with a volley of young melancholic voices that permeates, and wanes in your head, conjuring up the mermaid legend of a gloomy siren drawing seafarers to certain doom upon the rocks.