Finally offering up the keys to their debut EP, the experimental rock trio have made it a record to remember. 

Picking through rhythmic foundations and scraps of sound, mary in the junkyard use their carefully tuned ear to uncover antique gems from within the roaring landscape of a musician’s mind. Selecting only the most evocative, dynamic, and mesmerising of note combinations, they add each piece together to craft a sound that is more beautiful than any of its individual parts, and ultimately create something that is completely unheard of. 

With such uncluttered composition at its base, the experimental rock trio’s strength of songwriting always takes centre stage, conducting all those who are willing on an aural journey that not only heightens the senses, but also purges the soul. And so, this is where we find ourselves at the beginning of mary in the junkyard’s debut EP – ready to embark on a tumultuous journey through this old house. 

Pushing open the large front door and stepping into the hall, familiar images whir and flash before our eyes as people emerge from the floors and walls, filling the now empty space with what once was in ghost. “Pretty people smoking in the kitchen,” Clari Freeman-Taylor sings as she begins guiding us through each room; her hauntingly sweet vocals melding beautifully with the track’s slow burn guitars and propulsive rhythm. Immediately, we’re stuck in the in-between, in a place that was home, but no longer really is. 

What this track does so well (as does every other, really), is that it spirals out of control in its own unpredictable way while still being contained by mary in the junkyard’s intensely vivid and punk accented soundscape. Thoughts unravel and emotions seep out in moments of angry, weepy chaos just as quickly as they are comforted by warm, nostalgic breaths. This then enables Freeman-Taylor to devastatingly evoke the pain and sadness that can sneak into memories of the past despite her whisper-like vocals, and then also explore feelings of loneliness in songs like marble arch.

So as ghost comes to an end, we find ourselves settling in place, perhaps leaning on the kitchen counter or on the living room sofa, and letting marble arch’s poetic lyricism encourage us to watch those we once knew so intimately from a distance that can never be reduced: “I scream at the deadness of the dialling tone / And I cry and I decided that it’s best if I leave you alone.” 

It’s simply astounding that the trio are capable of creating an entire world that can be seen, heard, and felt in each of these tracks, as it very much feels like a skill that is getting rarer and rarer by the day, especially given the music industry’s incessant pursuit of instant pop hits. Throughout marble arch, we feel love for the people we see, but are stung by the wish we’d cherished them more. We’re glad to be gone from the noises and experiences of this old house, yet we still miss this home from our past. 

It really is a glorious song that bursts from small beginnings to moments of grandeur, before the magnificence of the final chorus then jolts us up and takes us upstairs for goop; to familiar rooms where we find old childhood toys and the decay of our youth amidst spooky foundations and discomfortingly vivid lyrics. Any reflections on past selves quickly become more unhinged as the increasingly raw sonic landscape created by viola player Saya Barbaglia brings a depth and intensity that is impossible to ignore. 

With mary in the junkyard’s quiet ferocity coming through stronger and stronger in each track, we slowly close the door on the discomfort of these bedrooms to be abruptly met with the turbulent chaos of teeth.

Fearlessly swooping between devastating depths and moments of vulnerability, we are urged back the way we came; forced to leave behind all feelings in the song’s frenzied purge of emotion. Though the music soon disintegrates like the ghostly figures that were once so clear, leaving only Freeman-Taylor’s voice above piano chords and a viola melody, ushering us out of the house completely and making us blink back to reality. 

But, the thing is, no matter how painful, emotional, or chaotic it was the first time, with an EP this dynamic and mesmerising, you’ll find yourself walking right back into this old house again and again. 

this old house is out now via AMF Records.

See mary in the junkyard live: