Red Mar: Our Low Cell

Red Mar are one of the more interesting prospects from the new world of improvisation and forward-thinking post-rock. Formed in 2020 by Miles Lukoszevieze (vocals, bass, harmonium, synths) and Harry Fisher (viola, reed organ, keyboard, piano), the pair have spent the decade opening doors for like-minded multi-instrumentalists to join them in conjuring up new possibilities – the current line-up also featuring Dylan Clarke (vocals, guitar, banjo, reed organ, synths), Dominic Temple (vocals, guitar, piano) and Acer Smith (drums, percussion, synths).

With the band having released a series of singles whilst carving out a growing listenership between their Norwich and London bases and beyond, on their debut album, Our Low Cell, Red Mar guide us through their bipolar world. Each composition untethered from the next with the core principle being improvisation, Red Mar scour every inch of earth for influence and inspiration. The results, open-sourced and incongruously assured.

Namokel is the band’s first and biggest statement. Over 17 minutes in length, Red Mar produce raga-infused improv’ metal through a rustic lens. More tailored for the prairie hum through the tall grass as opposed to the concrete jungle of metropolitan dread, Red Mar travel beyond the paths Smote has recently trodden, with riffs and chords barrelling towards fierce frontiers.

Although situated in similar locales, the path is different on Verdant. The woodsy foundation of Namokel overshadowed by a Goo-era Sonic Youth acid trip, and that’s only the first half of this shift in persona. The second, making the first seem at least plausible, for Red Mar feel their way through the dark corridors that lead to no-wave, dispensing the kind of baroque clatter inspired by Sacred Bones alumni (think Slug Guts slowed to half-speed).

With brooding walls of sound, Solenopsis, Pt. 1 and … Pt. 2 end Our Low Cell with the kind of force you’d expect from a band inspired by art’s allures for dark places. Arriving at the fork in the road where rural psychedelia and folk metal meet, a kindred spirit is born. As unlikely bedfellows as they are, it’s this hybridisation of post-rock that sees Red Mar aping the likes of the Nu London brigade and austere prog metal purveyors, both of which are watered-down constructs with the use by date at 12-point Arial.

Red Mar’s haunting explorations are far more authentic. Multi-functional and masked in mystique, their allies are more Bloodiest than Black Country, New Road, and on Our Low Cell, it’s more about the journey than the destination. The latter, one that Red Mar probably don’t know themselves, which makes their debut full-length even more intriguing.

Our Low Cell is out via Euphrasie purchase from Bandcamp.