Album Review: Maruja - Connla’s Well (self-released)
ALBUM REVIEW
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WRITTEN BY STEVE RICKINSON
WithConnla's Well, Manchester quartetMaruja constructs an EP that traverses myth, modernity, and the innermost recesses of the human psyche. It is as though the band has distilled the chaotic energies of our era and imbued them with mythic resonance into visceral and cerebral music. Also known for its electric live energy, the psychedelic jazz-punks will come to Bucharest for the first time when Control Club welcomes Maruja on December 16.
The title track draws from Irish folklore. It recounts the tale of Connla, who sought the forbidden wisdom of gods and suffered their wrath. Saxophones and percussion rise and fall, seemingly underscored by the inevitability of fate. With an abridged runtime, it is an auditory tempest that leaves us on the edge of an abyss—unprotected yet compelled to delve deeper.
This chaos gives way to The Invisible Man, shifting from mythic grandeur to the tragedy of modern life. Here, the band explores the spectral toll of mental health struggles. Harry Wilkinson’s refrain—“The truth. It hides.”—is a cry from the depths. Again, at the fore, Joe Carroll's saxophone articulates what words cannot through alternately mournful and ferocious lines.
With Zeitgeist, the EP pivots sharply. The title nods to an era's cultural and intellectual spirit and frames its exploration of societal tumult. The instrumental freneticism mirrors the disarray of an age defined by disconnection and relentless pace. Yet, amidst the dissonance is an implicit appeal to disengage from ceaseless churn and to seek solace from within.
The descent continues with One Hand Behind the Devil. Psychedelic distortions and industrial textures coalesce into a suffocating and revelatory soundscape. Its refrain, “Hurt people hurt people,” elicits a meditation on pain and a choice between pain as a destructive force or a crucible for self-transformation.
At its end, Resisting Resistance offers a moment of resolution, albeit tinged with melancholy. An instrumental, the track begins with minimalist tranquility. Gradually, it blossoms into a crescendo. Once again, its saxophones weave a poignant release point. The track’s final moments recede into calm, leaving a lingering sense of peace that feels hard-earned.
Maruja’s ability to fuse post-punk and harsh noise with jazz’s improvisational fluidity and art-rock’s conceptual depth will invite comparisons to Black Country, New Road, or The Comet Is Coming, but their sound resists such easy categorization. Here, each track inhabits its own world, making a release that sounds more personal than the band's previous offering, the coherent but consistently aggressiveKnocknarea. Through its brevity and narrative prowess, Connla’s Well becomes a myth that resonates with the timeless and the immediate, the individual and the collective.
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