Marlophone Go Widescreen on Ambitious Debut Remembered Adventures in Widescale
There’s something wonderfully cinematic about Remembered Adventures in Widescale, the debut album from Sydney trio Marlophone. It’s a record that takes the seemingly ordinary — childhood memories, friendships, fleeting moments and late-night thoughts — and blows them up into something enormous.
Released today, Remembered Adventures in Widescale is an album built on contrast. Patrick Haid, Saskia Clapton and Nick Kennedy move effortlessly between intimacy and exhilaration, combining shimmering guitars, driving rhythms, layered harmonies and walls of feedback to create a sound that feels both nostalgic and completely alive.
Opening with the euphoric “Nintendo Era Hero”, Marlophone immediately establish their world. There’s a familiar warmth to the guitar-driven indie rock, but the arrangements continually expand, with songs allowed to breathe, build and collide. “Pencils Drawn at Dawn” finds beauty in memory and everyday family moments, while “If We End Up on the Run” injects the album with a sense of cinematic urgency.
The emotional centre arrives with “I Promise It All To You”, a gorgeous duet featuring Sarah Blasko. Beginning delicately before building towards soaring violin, bent strings and waves of melodic feedback, it’s a beautiful meeting of voices and textures. Blasko’s distinctive vocal adds another dimension to an already expansive song, and the fact that much of the track was captured live gives it an organic, unforced quality.
Across ten tracks, Marlophone demonstrate a remarkable understanding of atmosphere without ever losing sight of the song. “Beating Heart Waltz” and “Strings and Old Machines” provide moments of dreamy reflection, while “Hold on Tight Tonight” and “Romance Rearranged” keep the record moving between tenderness and release.
Produced by Wayne Connolly, Remembered Adventures in Widescale is impressively rich without feeling overworked. Guitars shimmer and collide, analogue synths drift underneath soaring melodies, and the band understands exactly when to let the noise take over.
The album’s expansive sound is one that feels made for a live setting, and Marlophone will celebrate its release with two free live shows. The first is at Sydney’s Golden Barley Hotel in Enmore on Friday 21 August, with The Electorate, followed by a Saturday 19 September performance at The Link & Pin in Woy Woy on the Central Coast, joined by Wayne Connolly and Blackheath.
By the time “I Could Hear It In Your Smile” brings the album to its towering conclusion, the title makes perfect sense. This is music that turns life up to widescreen.
Remembered Adventures in Widescale is a confident debut from a band with a clear sense of identity — expansive, melodic, emotionally generous and full of the kind of small details that reveal themselves with every listen.
Marlophone’s adventure has officially begun, and this is a record well worth getting lost inside.
