Marathon - a brand new V2 signing - shares debut single 'Age', out today. The Amsterdam based trio started as a psychedelic shoegaze band and then tasted the exuberance of post punk. This journey transformed the sound of Marathon into an explosive mix of shoegaze, post punk and indie. Check out their 3voor12 session from earlier this year here.
Marathon has been moving through the Amsterdam underground for a few years now. Over two years of pent-up frustration has driven the band to the surface. Frustrations about everyday, mediocre moments like dinner in the microwave and watching TV around noon. Frustrations about a disrupted society in which people are increasingly pitted against each other and young people are swimming in a pool of loneliness, housing shortage and lost ambition. Frustrations that Marathon has managed to transform into an inexhaustible source of energy.
The audience is tapping into this source exuberantly. "The first string has not yet been struck and the first signs of a moshpit are appearing", is how 3voor12 writes about the semi-final of the Amsterdam Pop Prize in Paradiso. Previously, the SkateCafé, Slachthuis, Garage Noord and Le Guess Who?'s festival U? had to submit to the explosion called Marathon.
The compelling songs of Marathon - full of talky vocals, catchy choruses and dissonant solos - offer an encouraging perspective on a sombre reality that you sometimes want to escape from. They do so by screaming good and loud. Always with a footnote of optimism, because even under the darkest blankets you can dream of better times. On 11 March Marathon will be in the final of the Amsterdam Pop Prize in the Melkweg. Later this year they will tour as support band for post-punk colleagues MNNQNS from France and Trupa Trupa from Poland. In the meantime there is a studio somewhere shaking on its foundations; the first Marathon-releases will see the light of day this year
DEBUT SINGLE FROM AMSTERDAM BASED TRIO LISTEN HERE