Neil March released his sublime EP 'Alternatives To Despair' in the despair-stricken year of 2020.
This is a very hypnotic set of 4 tracks, each offering their own 'alternative' so to speak. We might view each song as a portal into a new chapter of March's own life, and/or as a different sonic experiment for the listener to immerse themselves in.
Listen to ‘Alternatives To Despair’ on all digital platforms HERE
Indeed, the record is a hugely personal one, the music having resonance with the key stages of the artist's life. March elaborates on these stages: "They are – growing up on a new town estate near London adjacent to the town’s large and noisy industrial centre; spending long periods of school holidays at my grandparents’ home, a mining town in the heart of the Welsh valleys and my current life as a long-time resident of South East London involved full-time in new music." We love that for March, music is a way to journal, to document, to frame.
Neil March is not shy of musical experimentation, having always been active in the music industry from an early age. On the EP, the third track is entirely created from environmental sounds he recorded and played with in Audacity. Tracks 1 & 2 have his own voice multi-tracked and doubled by synth choir in an attempt to create the aura of a Welsh Valleys Male Voice Choir (March has Welsh heritage).
We might think of art as a little memory capsule which audiences can unlock. Something so personal to the individual creator becomes so relevant to the audience, no matter when or who is listening or viewing. A painting, a musical composition, a sculpture. Neil March certainly captures our attention with his great ability to reveal fragments of a human experience; his own, and in turn, our own. By enjoying his artwork we can reflect upon our own lives and experiences. There's something about March's music that sounds so distant and familiar at the same time. It draws you in just enough to feed the soul, yet leaves you questioning who wrote it and why. These are all questions to which you will find answers somewhere within this EP, you just have to listen closely enough.