It was all hooey, of course, a parody designed to underscore the ridiculous but necessary paradigm of shilling unheard music with the hyperbole of the written word. Klosterman had never met Marion or heard a note of his music.
And yet Klosterman’s bogus tout sheet gave Delicate Steve a good deal of legitimate attention. Wondervisions, created by Marion at home and played live with the band of friends he assembled for touring purposes, is a marvel of simple complexity, the sound of Brian Eno producing Ratatat on a cyclical speed-vs.-cough-syrup binge.
There’s a funky World undercurrent to Marion’s songs and
a swaggering self-assurance that has nothing to do with sonic
pretension and everything to do with creative intention, as Wondervisions
quivers with tribal Folk/Pop fury, blusters with Rock ballad bombast
and simultaneously soothes and unnerves with avant-garde gravity. All
the while, Marion stands unperturbed in the eye of his own sonic
hurricane, making sounds for himself and the musical outcasts that
comprise his audience, free thinkers who eschew the mainstream for
something a little different. Like Mothra defeating the post-Rock
minotaurs.
Delicate Steve plays MOTR Pub Friday, July 8. Buy tickets, check out performance times and get venue details here.
