{"title":"Mansions \u0026 Millions","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"close-to-close-2","title":"Close To Close","description":"\u003cp\u003eDrifting off in a dreamlike state, lost in a meadow maybe, the sun is shining, gently warming your skin. The smell of spring is perfuming the air, and there is lightness all around. A lightness that’s everything but shallow, a lightness full of cheekiness, a lightness that has come to know loss and alienation. This is the sonic landscape Martha Rose has created for us. It evokes a tender, diffuse nostalgia, an air of simplicity, yet feels mystical at the same time. Welcome to the world of Martha.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAn English multi-instrumentalist, Martha Rose has been active in Berlin’s diverse underground music scene for years. With Close to Close, she makes her debut at the Neukölln-based label Mansions \u0026amp; Millions, the artistic home of many of her longtime collaborators. Close to Close is an organic and introspective meditation, creating an almost dreamlike state of being that feels simultaneously fragile, mournful but also light and full of love. „It mourns closeness gone cold“, Martha Rose explains „and the quiet loss of unspoken fragile intimacy.“ Unsurprisingly, the record’s first ideas were conceived during „those lonely months of lockdown“, she remembers. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt took until May 2023 for them to fully come to fruition, working together with producer ET at his studio in Neukölln. Working with vintage drum machine samples, Yamaha keyboards Martha Rose had collected, and, of course, lots of organic live recordings, they created the world of Close to Close. Alongside nods to traditional songs and ballads from Ireland, England, Scotland and the US, inspiration was found in the music of Daniel Johnston, Kate Bush or the Cocteau Twins, in literature, childhood memories, fairy tales, and DJ-sets at quintessential Berlin hangouts. „ET asked me lots of important and difficult questions about the songs“, Martha remembers, „to make sure they were forming in the best and most honest way possible.“\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHonesty is a common thread binding the dreamy soundscapes together, the lyrics are united by Martha’s bravery to share feelings of loneliness and being vulnerable. „It seems that the overarching theme of love will always be in my music, no matter what I do“, she says, „there are themes of romance, introspection, and loss in this project too.“ These personal experiences serve as a springboard to develop a song, and through the use of fictional or classic characters (such as the ancient Greek figure of Eurydice in the eponymous song) and archetypes, mysticism, fantasy and symbolism then take up a life of their own. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChin Up for example, a tender ballad about being brave and keeping one’s chin up, even after experiencing rejection, invokes traditional folk traditions from the US-American mid-west. Never Love Enough, wrapping the listener in sweet, blissful harmonies, turns the narratives of a love song on its head by wondering whether the lyrical subject can ever match their lover’s devotion. The Love In Your Heart, a call to love without fear reflects the feeling of peace that is found when you accept your own contradictory self. The Same Feeling, on the other hand, explores darker tonalities and themes. Martha says „There is a feeling of nighttime danger and glamour, and a relentlessness to the melodies in this song, which keep pushing through the emotional walls they are trying to understand.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn a record full of highlights, Heart Still Beats 4 U still manages to stand out: Martha Rose creates a song that is simultaneously subtle, yet undeniably disco. „It’s an upbeat lament about the impossibility of escaping your crush, soundtracking lonely nights secretly crying on a glittering 80s dance floor“, Martha reveals – and if there is any justice left in this planet, this track should be drawing crowds onto any dance floor imaginable.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eClose to Close is a remarkably concise, softly confident and impressive debut by a seasoned artist with a clear artistic vision and the skills to make these dreams come true. There is bravery in romance, in vulnerability, in softness – and Martha Rose formed the soundscape for it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e– Aida Baghernejad, February 2024, Berlin\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTracklisting\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e01 Gateway Drug\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e02 The Love in Your Heart\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e03 Heart Still Beats 4 U\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e04 Bleu\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e05 The Same Feeling\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e06 I Love it All\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e07 September\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e08 Never Love Enough\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e09 Chin Up\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e10 Reflective Hands\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e11 Eurydice\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mansions \u0026 Millions","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50519073751371,"sku":"2226365","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Close_to_Close_Artwork_65a23094_thumbnail_4096_5758198a_thumbnail_4096.webp?v=1727967232"},{"product_id":"open-source-2","title":"Open Source","description":"\u003cp\u003eWorld Brain last graced us with a solo release with 2019’s \u003ci\u003ePeer 2 Peer\u003c\/i\u003e. As its name suggests, that album explored the promise and perils of universal connectivity via quirked-up songwriting and instrumental psychedelia. His new release, \u003ci\u003eOpen Source\u003c\/i\u003e, deepens this internal and external journey. Bursting beyond the four walls of ‘bedroom pop’ and reflecting a move from Berlin to Paris—where much of the album was recorded—and on to Brussels, the album has a jazzy, cinematic scope (as on the Brubeck-inspired march “Fromage collatéral,”) enveloping the listener in a cosmic-pastoral audiosphere.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere are still many tones that evoke the software sounds of decades past (the exemplar here is “cAPTCHA,” whose virtual marimba and vocalese suggest a breathless, Exotica-inspired introduction .mov for the information superhighway) but the palette has become richer and more organic, lead by the woodwinds which play a major role throughout, with flute provided by labelmate Martha Rose. (On the aforementioned “cAPTCHA” one also hears the world-class whistling talents of the incomparable Molly Lewis.) \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYet the single most noticeable new element may be the use of World Brain's native French, sung by his sister Noémie on “Ville fleurie” and the gorgeous, fluttering “Minute papillion” (the title an idiomatic injunction to slow down!) WB initially wrote these lyrics in English, but felt something wasn’t quite right, only realising what was off when he heard them sung in another language. That spirit of discovery – of finding a new spark in returning home – suffuses \u003ci\u003eOpen Source\u003c\/i\u003e. It invites us to play, beckons us to relax, reminds us to find serenity amidst the churn of the present: minute papillon, dans le tourbillon.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mansions \u0026 Millions","offers":[{"title":"Red LP | Rough Trade Exclusive","offer_id":50530912141643,"sku":"2219031","price":26.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/a3931823229_10_4fa4081b_thumbnail_4096_a3b2e1fa_thumbnail_4096.webp?v=1728087918"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/de\/collections\/mansions-millions.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}