Smalllife - Marmite

Hear The Track Here

Because of my own committments this year, I've had to scale back quite dramatically how many tracks I review a month; how much time I spend on each forum etc. The one thing this internet business does, more than any other, is to piss time away as if it were water. Time, I might add, better spent making the damn music I came here for. What it meant in practical terms is that one site in particular has been extremely difficult to keep up with and it's the site where I fist met Smalllife, a band I have infinite amounts of time for. I was really glad they looked me up for this - their first release of 2007 - because Smalllife are that magic ingredient; a rock band worthy of the name.

MP3 Unsigned is a terrific site for talent and Smalllife are amongst it's very best artists and - when you consider the competition on that site - you get an inkling of how good this band could be. Put it like this, they gave me a Track Of The Year 2006 for Need To Buy A Woman (August 2006) as well as snagging Band Of The Year 2006 on MP3 Unsigned. Not bad going for yer average rock band, but the one thing about Smalllife you will find is that they are far from average. Marmite is a much rawer, trashier version of the original band and one I suspect it will take a while to get used to; there is a definite punk edge in this track that doesn't make it family listening - all delivered in Smalllife's usual professional manner.

Nice production on this too, but that has always been a highlight of their work as any of their releases during 2006 will show. Smalllife are a band capable of reminding you of many rock greats while managing to stay fairly close to their own particular style, On this track most of the references are heavy metal, punk, and any band inspired by early heavy metal singers rather than the classic rock the band usually feast on. Nonetheless, taken as a whole Marmite is a much welcomed track in the Gilmore household because it goes a long way towards reminding me how good this band can be; all seven minutes of it. I'm sure the band's many fans will already have this but if the name is new to you - and you like the sound of it, you won't find much better than a nice dob of Marmite.

Highly Recommended Rock from the old school.