Marina Zispin Vinyl, CD & Tape 2 Items

Synth-pop duo Marina Zispin return with their highly anticipated album Now You See Me (Now You Don’t), set for release on March 7 via Scenic Route. Now You See Me, Now You Don't is the continuing journey through the ever evolving sound of Marina Zispin AKA Bianca Scout and Martyn Reid. As with their previous EP - the recurring themes of Life and Death loom heavily over the 10 album tracks. With support from 6 Music, Resident Advisor, Pitchfork, Metal, Dummy, The Line of Best Fit, Boomkat, and more for their recent singles. With Now You See Me (Now You Don’t), Marina Zispin further reinforces their reputation for crafting lush, melancholic soundscapes paired with surreal storytelling and ice-cold synth pop. Since their formation in 2018, bridging Newcastle and London, Marina Zispin have quickly captivated audiences with their ethereal blend of dreamlike melodies and avant-garde textures. Their 2023 debut 12” on Night School paved the way for a successful UK tour, a BBC 6 Music session, and a memorable performance at Bucharest’s Collisions festival. Bianca Scout, acclaimed for her solo album Pattern Damage (with praise from The Quietus, DJ Mag, Resident Advisor, Pitchfork, Stereogum, Bandcamp, The Wire, and more) continues to push sonic boundaries with her unique fusion of sound collage, post-punk, and poetic lyricism. Recent shows across Europe, including at Poland’s Unsound Festival, underscore the duo’s expanding influence. With Now You See Me (Now You Don’t), Marina Zispin invite listeners on a captivating journey through a signature blend of fantasy and reality. The album is now available for vinyl pre-order.

Non Exclsuive,Mini LP, LTD 300

1. Flowers In The Sea
2. Ski Resort
3. Backworth Golf Club
4. Hymn
5. Surprise Party

‘Life And Death - The Five Chandeliers Of The Funereal Exorcisms’ pulls back the veil unto a nocturnal
scene populated by shadows, embers burning coldly in the underworld. Marina Zispin is your guide, siren
and protector both. Marina Zispin is the negative space between musicians Bianca Scout and Martyn Reid.
Life And Death is the duo’s debut release, five chandeliers of melancholic, vibrant synth pop twinkling in
the inky blackness.
Both originally hailing from the North East of England and forming a musical partnership before lockdown, Bianca
Scout and Martyn Reid initially worked remotely. Having relocated to South London and Newcastle respectively,
Marina Zispin was born in earnest after the duo could begin writing and practising in the same space. Bianca
Scout is a celebrated musician and dancer with a number of solo and collaborative works in her discographywhile
Martyn Reid is a mainstay of the UK noise and power electronics scene, most recently with solo project Depletion.
Marina Zispin largely eschews both Scout’s deconstructed approach to song and Reid’s focus on visceral, noisebased productions; the result is a new entity, the underground pop star that exists only in darkened dreams.
Marina Zispin, then, is an avatar cajoled, nurtured and directed by Scout and Reid. Analogue electronics redolent
of the early 80s Cold Wave and Synth Pop era form the base of the Zispin worldview, with Bianca Scout donning
the Marina disguise, embodying the character over five songs of swooning drama, playful melodic interplays and
tear-stained, doe-eyed sentiment. Flowers In The Sea opens with an austere 4/4 beat and hypnotic synth parts
before Scout/Zispin floats in across the lagoon. Scout’s vocal tone is an instant winner, sweet like honey pouring
down over the cold, robotic productions and stereo-panned synth work. We can almost see the petals drift into the
horizon before being pulled under by the artist’s sadness. Ski Resort bursts out with a Jacno-inspired bassline
and backing that could have been buried in a French disco in 1982 (think Stereo or Linear Movement) before
Scout’s narrative details frivolousness and regret before a magical shift for the final coda into major key.
Backworth Gold Club closes Side A, a mysterious rigid beat and minor chord synth arpeggios swimming in
space, floating and obscure.
On Side B, Hymn carries the tone on, church-like synths holding down the pattern for Zispin/Scout to float above
in a flowing gown of reverb. The marriage of Reid’s cold musical backbone and Scout’s effortless vocal and coproduction is in full flow here, the vocals at times rising to the rafters of this nocturnal place of worship, at other
points they’re fuzzy samples cutting in and drifting out or sung with an extreme autotune, abstract and perfect in
the moment. Surprise Party is the most straightforward pop bullet, Scout/Zispin’s vocal peering out more from the
fog, perhaps revealing more than usual: vulnerability, maybe, the wandering muse of the artists behind the veil or
just another layer of mystery behind the enigma?
Marina Zispin’s Life & Death - The Five Chandeliers Of The Funereal Exorcisms ends as it began, scintillating in
obscurity, leaving everything unanswered but open.