Maribou State

Counter Records, 2015

For their debut full-length release the British electronic duo of Chris Davids and Liam Ivory, aka Maribou State, crafted a stunning soup of ethereal beats for their choice cast of guest vocalists. Flitting effortlessly between house, 2-step, and deeply groovy downtempo dance music, each of these wonderfully sculpted songs, drenched in reverb and vinyl crackle, came off like vintage soul, skewed through the prism of some quite masterful Ableton programming.

The resulting sound was achingly beautiful, and pretty epic in scope. You’d never have guessed it was made in a shed. “It was The Shack In The Back,” says Liam. “A tiny thing behind my parents’ house. It wasn’t soundproofed, but that meant that it had really good acoustics.”

This unique space was ideal for their big ideas. Chris, at times, having drafted sketches at home, would bring them in to flesh out.

“One of us would start the tracks off with a loop,” he says. “I might bring drums, or a guitar lick. And then we’d sort of hash it out. It never ended up anywhere near where the original loop started, but just having that jump-off helped.”

Liam agrees. “Every track would have a different pathway, or journey. It completely depended on the track. It then all came together when we got the vocals on.”

Their gorgeous rhythms would become perfect backings for singers like label mate, Jono McCleery, the likeminded Pedestrian, and Holly Walker, who turns out two of the album’s finest moments on Steal and the timeless Midas.

Like the rest of the album, these tracks effortlessly serve up a kind of alt-soul, or electronic R&B, steeped in history, but always forward-thinking. It’s the kind of single-minded, deeply personal, and uniquely British stuff, that you can only get pottering away at in a shed at the bottom of your garden. “It sounded really good in there,” says Chris. “Funnily enough, we really struggled to get that sound back once we left the shed [laughs].”

So, here’s to shed producers everywhere. Find your special place, away from the maddening roar of modern life, and see what portraits you end up painting…