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The follow-up to his debut single “Out Getting Ribs” this EP demonstrates expansion of vision, both musically and thematically. The connective tissue between these five tracks is still Marshall’s stark, direct lyrics, but over the span of the self-titled EP, there is an arresting sonic progression, as his songs open up to become a loose knit meditation and renewal of hope in the face of desperation. Shades of The Streets’ plainspoken and observant ramble dance with the heart on sleeve confessions/cultural critiques of Billy Bragg. Archy’s influences are a patchwork for his voice to lay in, woven from several generations of music as divergent as the '80s romantics, jazz, no wave and dub.
The first vocal track “Bleak Bake,” for instance, opens with levitating keyboards and Marshall clearing his throat, before sampled strings and 808 drum “pooms” swoon in and he sighs. “The Noose of Jah City” drives the knife in deeper, some of his most intoxicating incantations to date, with Marshall singing of being “suffocated in concrete” over a lushly upholstered backdrop of chiming guitars and shuffling sampled beats. While in the gorgeous "Portrait in Black and Blue” he unleashes a bounding piece of classic croon.
