Track by Track: Marina Zispin – Now You See Me Now You Don’t

“As with our previous EP, themes of life and death loom heavily over these 10 tracks—from the skeletal rhythms and disembodied vocals of ‘Death Must Come’ to the unsettling pastoral dark ambient of the closing track, ‘The Scythe.’”

We invited them to break down the release, as they discuss spheres of influence, key moments and process.

​​Death Must Come

Martyn: This was one of the very last tracks we recorded for the album. There’s a bit of a Detroit electro influence to some of this. I programmed a very skeletal beat over which I added some funereal chords and all sorts of effects etc. Scout comes in with a lighter cloudy chord near the beginning which was the perfect contrast to the funereal chord playing throughout the track For some of the percussion sounds I’m hitting a metal heater.

Scout: Its almost like an assembly…building blocks. Chanting the lines that thread the record altogether. I just remember watching the lights flashing by through the glazed out windows on Rushey Green road in Catford,….non stop movement…the korg was on the floor and i hit the chords I know that sound like clouds.

Piece of Mind

Martyn: I had come up with this piano-like melody for the intro and then added the beat and bassline which I played to Scout who thought it would work well with a vocal melody that had been in her head for years. She also came up with the amazingly wonky synth melody that is recurring throughout the track. Unlike our previously released material this one feels most like an actual “band” and it was born out of late night jam sessions in catford, London. We don’t use a computer for any of our stuff so a lot of things we try to do in the moment…for example: most of the effects on scouts vocals I’m manipulating in real time as scout was singing which gives it this real sense of urgency.

Scout: The vocal melody had been in my head since 2019. I was on my way to watch a performance in a church, and the ‘hey hey hey …’ melody was ringing in my head so I just voice noted it to myself. I love how long the track is, and how it reverses. I knew it was a banger. It was like such a volcano eruption moment when it happened I was like , its the perfect tempo and those keys really are like how my brain sounds like sometimes…

The Tudors

Martyn: I came up with the main melody around Easter 2023 and remember playing it to Scout as she happened to be visiting Newcastle that weekend. The initial lyrics I had written had nothing to do with The Tudors but seemed to fit once we decided to go with the title and scout added additional lines. We got the song finalised a few days before going on tour with Apostille in September 2023 where we would perform it every night. Scout recorded her vocals in catford the following year.

Scout: I was living in a guardian scheme right next to Westminster, so upsetting, it had been an adult day care center that had been shut down, this little bit of london was like right on the belly of the dragon. while living right next to Westminster.. thinking about the changes that happened regarding faith, land, money, homes…. So much death , torture and execution still in the air and its still is happening..its just not done right in front of you now. Actually Martyn come up with the “dont be late or hesitate , the forest waits..”cos I was about to attend a rehearsal with Alice Glass who I was to meet for the first time !

Deep Blue

Martyn: This is an older track with a basic synth pop sound more in common with the sound of our previous EP. Unlike our other tracks where we use a variety of equipment; the music for this one was entirely composed on a Korg EMX.

Scout: Martyn sent me the instrumental for Deep Blue on the same night as Ski Resort ( which is on our first EP) and I and I had such a fun night at the end of 2020 a bit stoned alone in my room in Maria Fidelis Convent School where I was living…. making up stories about being at a ski resort though I’ve never been. And I felt I was really in a flow and got singing and vocal hooking for deep blue,..one line me and Martyn had come up with ages ago in his room in Newcastle, so I was just playing around with that.

Penthouse Samba

Martyn: I composed most of the music for this one January 2024 afternoon when I was staying at scouts place in catford. I had the recording space to myself for a few days while she was away shooting a music video in an actual penthouse. I had brought as much of my equipment I could carry but would also use whatever scout had lying around including her new Yamaha reface CS that was used for some of the marimba-esque sounds. When the track was completed, I took the multitrack and the rest of the over to the penthouse in canary wharf the next day and we recorded the vocals. we’re both big fans of Astrud Gilberto and this song is a bit of an homage.

Scout: It was a surreal bliss, to record with all this equipment in a glass penthouse, I was shooting the music video for Forest Spirit, me and Elle (the Director) split the rent of it for a week which meant we could use it after the video wrapped up…wss a treat to share it with Martyn and Nwakke who came to visit too. Funny place to make music in…

The Mimes

Martyn: I composed the instrumental to this maybe a year before I could decide what else to do with it. I wrote some random lyrics to it a year later. At the time I was reading Confessions of an Opium Eater by Thomas De Quincey and I think the song has a similar sardonic almost Victorian London sensibility to it. Scout added guitar and some ghostly vocals in the bridge. there’s also some harmonica and noise from the MS-20

Scout: The place we were recording in was an old solicitors of Catford. The place was very heavy , with thin walls, so the outside was the inside all the time. My room was the reception so its just glazed over, so im being very literal when I sing , its reflecting me…. The shadows and silhouettes of Catford corner on your window, you witness so much and they have no idea someones inside.

Venus Opulence

Martyn: This is a song where the music is mostly guided by Scouts vocal melody. The percussion sounds are made up from some household objects I sampled into the Korg ESX-1. some of them are the internal sounds of a mobile phone.
The synth in this is one of my favourite patches I made on the microkorg. I have a lot of analog synths but still find myself coming back to the microkorg from time to time. some people diss the microkorg but they’re probably only using the presets. it’s actually a deep machine.

Scout: These vocals where made up while I was putting my shoes on to go to a summerset house art night thing in London
Catford bridge is like two mins from my house so im always leaving it stupidly to get the train. And Martyn sends me the original Venus, which maybe we will release on our buried treasures tapes, and you know when u just gotta get something out of your head, and I knew I had 5 mins to spare….anyway, We dont use that take… cos the song is so different now, I love how its evolved from performing it live, but the vocalmelody remains.

Venus Decadence

Martyn: This is quite a different approach for marina In that I composed the instrumental from cut-up samples to which I then added synths, drum machine and effects while scout added a guitar part that complimented the sample beautifully. There’s also musicboxes and a wine bottle. Lyrically I wanted to write a counterpart to Scouts lyrics for Venus Opulence. I really adore the decadent movement in Literature and the sentiment of this track is greatly inspired by Against Nature by Huysmans.

Scout: I really loved just playing delicately on my janky little guitar, I love when Martyn sings.

The Bells

Martyn: The sample at the start of this is Scout singing along to the chimes when we were hanging out on a night in whitley bay – it was Easter 2023 so this song was also conceived at the very same time as The Tudors. The lyrics are quite personal and being a fairly private person I had conflicting emotions after i first sang them live. I’m over that, although it still feels strange sometimes. The music is made up of synths and vocal samples- scout added some additional choral keyboards on the chorus and sings the closing lines. the vocals along with penthouse samba were memorably recorded late night at the apartment at canary wharf.

Scout: I remember when Martyn showed me the music for the first time in Newcastle , we were in the rehearsal rooms in Heaton and I was so hyped by the beat and the way Martyn brings his experiences and emotions to the mic. We were dead excited about the tour and sharing the new music live. It has so much nostalgia for me so the sentiment and melodies blur. I really was asking like… Time will tell if ill ever be in love again… haha and on that tour by fate I did meet someone.

The Scythe

Martyn: A strange ambient piece. we used a toy guitar, harmonica and other sounds alongside electronics. Most of the percussion sounds are derived from sampling whatever was lying around much like Venus Opulence.

Scout: Really thinking about how people were actually sent out to fight with the tools. Workers, farmers.. just people. They need more men to fight but they don’t give them a sword. So they take their scythe

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