About

When Maribou State consider the new music they’ve made over the past few years, one word jumps out: togetherness. Chris Davids and Liam Ivory were propelled onto the world’s stage with their 2015 debut album Portraits, followed by 2019’s equally acclaimed Kingdoms In Colour, both redefining soulful, downtempo electronica for a new generation. There’d been world tours, dates at majestic venues like Sydney Opera House and a roadblock set at Glastonbury, as well as Artist of the Year accolades and a hugely successful single with Khruangbin (‘Feel Good’). Hallucinating Love is worth the wait: it’s ambitious, packed with sublime anthemia, and is injected with restless energy, soaring strings and stunning guest vocals from long-standing collaborator Holly Walker and new friends like MOBO-nominated artist Andreya Triana. It evidences Maribou State’s evolving balance of intimacy and intricacy, as well as their knack for making epic sundown music. Says Liam: “When we were writing, we were imagining how great it’d feel to finally be back onstage, bringing people together again.” The overall feeling is one of hope. Hallucinating Love is “about being in a dark place, a place of struggle, and then looking forward to bright futures,” Chris explains.

Hallucinating Love has an earthy charm, echoing the countryside settings of those writing retreats. The woody soul of "Blackoak" is buoyed by beautiful strings and syrupy analogue synth, or there’s the cabin-folk of "Rolling Stone" and the Celtic marching drums of standout track "Peace Talk", on which Holly Walker delivers a truly superb vocal performance. She returns on another highlight, "Otherside", too – a joyful blast of soul-pop that evokes careening along the coastline in California. The field recordings and samples in their music – for which the duo are known – give their sound a richly layered texture, like a dusty cassette tape found in the bottom of a glovebox. And here they take it all to the next level: "Dance on the World", "Otherside", "Peace Talk" are among their most expansive tunes yet – evidencing just their skill as songwriters. Second single "All I Need" is classic Maribou, a trick-mirror of melancholy and hope, with Andreya Triana’s gorgeous vocal cushioned by a propulsive, glitchy trip-hop beat, brightly-lit guitar and ghostly omnichord. This being Maribou State, the songs are evocative and full of gorgeous details – see "Bloom"'s guitar line, unfurling like a flower, with drum flourishes that gently recall old-skool rave.

Crucially, the duo wanted to reflect the lineage of great British electronic music, from jungle and UK garage to IDM and trance, and celebrate its influence as well as their place in that history. “We’ve always been very hidden in the project, and revelled in the ambiguity and anonymity,” admits Liam. “But as we've gotten older, we've wanted to show who we are much more. And naturally it made sense to then point towards British dance music culture because it's something to be really proud of.” There are some left-turns too you might not expect from the pair, too. The kosmische groove of Ekos (say it echoes) stands out, and was the first song that Chris wrote for the album, sampling his father’s old Eko guitar. “It's the first time I'd sung on anything of ours that's been released,” he says. — via Label

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Label: Ninja Tune
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Released: 2025
Genre: Electronic
Style: Downtempo, Alternative Beats, Soul

File under: Downtempo
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