Mark McGuire

'Nightshade' / 'Surrogate Channels'

BY Alex HudsonPublished Nov 30, 2012

In addition to releasing a recent album as one-third of electronic trio Emeralds, Mark McGuire has kept up a busy schedule of solo works and collaborative side-projects this year. If you're finding it difficult to keep up with all of his recent goings-on, the ambient master has posted a couple of recent solo EPs on his Bandcamp page.

Nightshade was originally released as a tour cassette, and is now available to stream for free or purchase for $5. The five tracks were recorded in Portland and inspired by a trip to New Zealand. The Bandcamp description explains, "Electric & acoustic guitars, and vocals run through guitar-synthesizer and other electronics, calling back to the voices in the sky."

The three-song Surrogate Channels was also recorded in Portland. Opening track "Morning, and the Gold Coast" was inspired by the beaches of Australia, while the title tune is "way more stressed-out than track one, foreshadowing jams to come on my next full-length." The closing "Controlled by Numbers (in the House of 7 and 13)" is "a meditation on the numbers, dates, and symbols that have cycled around my life, and had a strange presence in the back of my mind." It's free to stream or $6 to buy.



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