Monthly Spotlight: Marco Mahler

I've known of Marco's music for several years and it dumbfounds me that he hasn't made much more noise online and in print. I tried to put him over the top, but I guess I don't have the pull I wish I had. There are two albums to seek out, first his debut Design in Quick Rotation and then the follow-up Laptop Campfire Speed.

Here is what I wrote in my review of his debut on my first blog, Sixeyes.

Marco Mahler’s vocals may lean more towards a conspiratorial whisper than a shouted ‘hey-look-at-me’, but it’s his music that rises above that charismatic whisper to snag your ear. Acoustic guitar lines cut through all else, crisscrossing, blooming, like kaleidoscopic patterns in tracks like the instrumental “Hike The Lake”. And yet it’s that very voice, that calming, quiet voice delivering Mahler’s abstract lyrics, that’s the perfect foil to the penetrating acoustic guitar. Although all this isn’t in sacrifice to melody, he does wield a number of strong melodies that will lodge like an arrow in your heart. “Orange Chinese Car” softly thumps like a basketball about to be taken hard to the hoop, while “Study Airports” is an anti-lullaby, a song to wake up to rather than deliver the lulling. Design in Quick Rotation is a surprisingly well-crafted debut from a man who, not surprisingly, is also a sculptor.

There's an undeniable laid back charisma always on display. Tell me there isn't.

Listen to his latest release in the top right sidebar and visit his bandcamp page to listen to his debut (and to buy both).

"Hike The Lake" is from Design In Quick Rotation.
Marco Mahler - Hike The Lake by Bad Panda Records