Released on boutique label Crafting Room Recordings Ideal Living’s Indie Opera EP ‘This Big house’ will be accompanied by the release of a short film, and the publication of frontman Billy Marsh’s debut novel of the same name, from where the EP pools its narrative.
The band are all about dramatics and a tactile approach to music. Assisted by front man Billy Marsh vocal approach and magical story telling. Their big band folk is instantly likeable, with a touch of familiarity about it that has you hooked from opening track to closing track. Its performance art with a great sense of togetherness.
Hints of some serious musical ambition poke through the tracks on display here. Moments of prog/folk deliciousness like the lengthy swirling outro of opening track ‘Come To Me’. A jazz collective jam session wrapped in guitar led melodic indie. Or Marsh’s intimate baritone that washes over horns and gentle shimmering of strings on ‘Go Gently’. The EP does not stand still constantly on the verge of falling off course into a maddening chaotic hell that is far from going gently. Its an internal rage set to music that encapsulates personal strife and struggle.
The finality sounding ‘March’ mimics Tom Waits theatrics yet is entirely Ideal Living production. The stage like Soliloquy is captivatingly delivered. “I view Ideal Living as a big orchestra”, says frontman and band founder Billy Marsh, “Like when there’s a play on stage and the band is right there in the pit, bringing the story to life through sound. We’ve always tried to approach the music as something quite theatrical and big, always willing to jump between genres and styles. So it made sense to write something that’s a complete story, an indie-opera, if you will….”
‘Chocolate And Wine’ lets the listener appreciate Marsh’s vocals. Warm whisky soaked and companionless or paranoid manic dribbling the band needed something extra special to overcome the brilliant musical scores. Luckily Marsh has it in him to lead this rag tag band into something that is coherently just enough to be magical.
The tracks are mini masterpieces here, filled with intricate moments and huge operatic sonic landscapes led by the storytelling lyric writing that is delivered by one of the best raconteur’s. There is a cinematic quality threaded through the songs, like the western style bass runs on ‘Go Gently’ or the sound off horn section on ‘March’. But it simply boils down to the fact that there is no one else crafting such ambitious and imaginative music as good as this.
Check out the track Come To Me, below
Purchase the EP here
