King Krule | ||
| Allmusic Biography : Named after King K. Rool, a character in the Donkey Kong series of video games, King Krule is a solo project of Archy Marshall, a London-based artist who has been compared to Joe Strummer and Billy Bragg and admired by Beyoncé and Kanye West. The singer, songwriter, guitarist, and keyboardist raised eyebrows with the 2010 single "Out Getting Ribs," released under the alias Zoo Kid, which showcased his distinctively raw voice. Anticipation for Marshalls first album grew, as the song earned him a spot on various high-profile "artists to watch" lists, as well as a nomination in BBCs Sound of 2013 poll. In 2013, while still a teenager, Marshall released the first King Krule album, 6 Feet Beneath the Moon, on XL in the U.K. and True Panther in the U.S. Marshall then collaborated with his brother Jack for the relatively fluid, more electronic A New Place 2 Drown. Released in 2015 and credited to Archy Marshall, its physical edition was packaged with a 208-page book of poetry, photography, and art. King Krule fully reactivated in 2017 with a handful of varied singles -- the dreamlike ballad "Czech One," the midtempo rocker "Dum Surfer," and the rumbling "Half Man Half Shark," all featuring saxophone from Ignacio Salvadores -- that led up to The Ooz, an hour-long follow-up written during a three-year period. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 3 Title: King Krule Released: 2011-11-08 Tracks: 5 Duration: 12:36 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 363N63 (02:01) 2 Bleak Bake (02:30) 3 Portrait in Black and Blue (02:53) 4 Lead Existence (01:11) 5 The Noose of Jah City (04:01) |
 | Album: 2 of 3 Title: 6 Feet Beneath the Moon Released: 2013-08-24 Tracks: 14 Duration: 52:26 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Easy Easy (02:50) 2 Boarder Line (03:06) 3 Has This Hit? (04:26) 4 Foreign 2 (03:39) 5 Ceiling (02:56) 6 Baby Blue (03:36) 7 Cementality (03:44) 8 A Lizard State (04:20) 9 Will I Come (01:55) 10 Ocean Bed (03:31) 11 Neptune Estate (05:13) 12 The Krockadile (04:52) 13 Out Getting RIbs (04:16) 14 Bathed In Grey (04:02) |
| 6 Feet Beneath the Moon : Allmusic album Review : Not since Rick Astley has a voice seem so mismatched with a body. King Krules 6 Feet Beneath the Moon features one Archy Marshall, a 19-year-old with the baby-faced looks of a young Ron Howard, who possesses a huge growling baritone that is earthshaking and soulful. Wisely, his beguiling voice is mixed prominently in his debut, up front, to place an accent on his dexterous, streetwise lyrics and the emotional details in his delivery. With a snarling, Billy Idol intensity, Archy sings like the type of kid who would be quick to throw a punch without asking questions. This grittiness contrasts with the balladic nature of his songs, which are built from the ground up from a guitar plugged clean into a Twin Reverb, and a love of jazz-style major seventh chords. Johnny Marr and British pop fusion groups like Prefab Sprout play a role in his songwriting, as do electronic-minded Londoners like James Blake. His breakout single, "Out Getting Ribs," demonstrates his ability to break hearts with just a lone guitar and voice, but elsewhere, lo-fi breakbeats permeate the mix subtly, with songs like "Will I Come" and "Neptune Estate" using some tricks from trip-hop, such as samples, loops, and Rhodes piano. With so many varying styles, its a bit of a surprise that it comes together so effortlessly, but at its core, Krule is showing all sides of his U.K. environment, and the multiple genres laced into the sparse backdrop are held together by an overlying somber grey fog. Peel that back and you have one of the most vital debuts of the year. | ||
 | Album: 3 of 3 Title: The Ooz Released: 2017-10-13 Tracks: 19 Duration: 1:06:24 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Biscuit Town (03:42) 2 The Locomotive (02:52) 3 Dum Surfer (04:23) 4 Slush Puppy (02:43) 5 Bermondsey Bosom (Left) (01:15) 6 Logos (03:50) 7 Sublunary (02:10) 8 Lonely Blue (04:45) 9 Cadet Limbo (04:53) 10 Emergency Blimp (02:54) 11 Czech One (04:15) 12 (A Slide In) New Drugs (03:06) 13 Vidual (02:20) 14 Bermondsey Bosom (Right) (01:06) 15 Half Man Half Shark (05:02) 16 The Cadet Leaps (04:21) 17 The Ooz (04:36) 18 Midnight 01 (Deep Sea Diver) (03:54) 19 La Lune (04:17) |
| The Ooz : Allmusic album Review : Archy Marshall debuted as Zoo Kid when he was an actual kid and released his acclaimed first album -- under the presumably self-bestowed title King Krule -- before he turned 20. Marshall continued work on new material for years but was displeased with it, save for a set of mumbling-in-a-bucket hip-hop blues, A New Place 2 Drown, credited to his off-stage name. The Ooz, the artists second King Krule album, surfaced -- or is that seeped out? -- five years after the first one. Compared to the debut, the songwriting is more refined and the sounds are more disparate, resulting in a sort of controlled chaos, a scuzzy mix of nervy neo-rockabilly projectiles, howling dirges, and noodling dive-lounge tunes. Its further distinguished with saxophonist Ignacio Salvadores writhing bleats, continually in support of Marshalls scraggly guitar work and variety of voices, as liable to sound like his slumped natural self as an exaggeration of growling punks like the Clashs Paul Simonon or the Ruts Malcolm Owen. Clear references are made to Marshalls previous full-lengths, and repeated allusions to water -- as in sinking -- as well as blue as a color and feeling, are likewise threaded throughout. Damp, suffocating city streets are never distant. When Marshall retreats to physical solitude, he cant leave his head -- not even with a prescription, a situation related in a whirling frenzy of insomniac agitation titled, naturally, "Emergency Blimp." Marshall is just as expressive and evocative when he keeps it guttural; "She smoked me whole and blows out Os," over decayed, dispirited bossa nova, passes like a wisp but could be the albums emotional center. Details that seem to provide levity -- "Man this band thats playin, is playing fucking trash" among them -- have a way of heightening the sense of inescapable dread. No matter that feeling, illustrated with one distressed scene after another, filtered through a multitude of inspirations and a few bodily fluids, The Ooz is a completely engrossing work from a one-off. | ||