Hailing from Dunedin, New Zealand, Marlin’s Dreaming are a fourpiece making dreamy shoegaze-inflected rockers. The release of their second album Quotidian is just around the corner, as it’s due to drop on April 24, but ahead of that we thought we’d get inside their heads and bedrooms by finding out what they’ve been listening to lately.
Each of Marlin’s Dreaming’s four members have picked an album, and in combination they show the band’s reverence for the classics, for the influential, and for the obscure. Scroll down to see what they’ve chosen, but before that, enjoy the excellent “Outwards Crying” from Marlin’s Dreaming’s upcoming album Quotidian.
Pavement – Wowee Zowee
[Matador; 1995]
My dad had this CD in the car and would always play it when I was growing up. From a young age it just stuck with me, and I have never once got sick of it. The vocal melodies behave unpredictably and the lyrics are always hilariously perceptive. All of the tones – drums, bass, guitar and synth – SO on point on this album especially. I think tonally and musically this album helped shape my taste a lot.
-Semisi Maiai (vocals, guitar)
Spiritualized – Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space
[Dedicated; 1997]
My friend Gabriel showed me this album in high school. It’s one I come back to often. The textural and the timbral calls and the flow make it so smooth and hypnotic, which can be hard to achieve parallel to having an engaging, you know, “song”. But they’re really amazing songs too, there are ideas and motifs in this thing that pop into my head and warm my heart on a pretty regular basis. The suave self-awareness of “Think I’m in Love”, the soul crushing defeatedness of “Broken Heart”. For me, this album has an idyllic blend of attitude and emotion.
-Leith Towers (guitar, backing vocals)
David Bowie – Hunky Dory
[RCA; 1971]
It has been pretty much impossible to escape Bowie in my life, not that I’ve tried. My dad had a fairly extensive Bowie album collection as well as the Best of Bowie CDs in the family car. I also got to study him at University. I think my main fascination with his music is the diversity in sounds and genre album to album. He was really good at making every aspect of his albums have purpose and contribute to the entire project, even creating entire personas. This album is in the worst condition in my dad’s collection from me playing it over the years. While being one of his more traditional creations, the songs are all amazing and it has always been the one I would grab from the collection.
-Oscar Johns (bass)
Jonwayne – Cassette 3: The Marion Morrison Mixtape
[Stones Throw; 2013]
Fresh out of high school I didn’t have enough room in my first flat for a drum kit, so I was trying to find a way to get my fix without a kit. I decided to try make some (bad) hip hop beats to fill that void. I found this album on a random YouTube spree and was blown away by the production. The opening track “Ode to Mortality” has a great vocal sample from Charles Bukowski at the start and there are countless other examples of fine sample work throughout the album.
There are some really great producers and rappers who had a part on this album including Mndsgn, Jeremiah Jae, Zeroh and even a beat from the late J Dilla. I wouldn’t call myself a producer by any means but this album first inspired me to create something of my own.
-Hamish Morgan (drums)
Marlin’s Dreaming’s new album Quotidian comes out on April 24. Follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
