This one comes straight from a Friend of the Crowd, with strong words of recommendation:
“The one I have on loop is Pain to Power by Maruja. Very current lyrics, crazy saxophones, and they’re really good live.”
I had heard the name before. My friend kept bringing them up. I kept doing that very professional music-person thing of saying “yeah, I’ll check them out” and then absolutely not checking them out.
Then I did. And what the actual hell.
Pain to Power is a protest, a breakdown, and a middle finger to the system happening at the same time. Maruja turns anger, grief and overload into something you can actually shout back with.
There are many highlight on the album but the sax under the almost-manifesto of “Break the Tension” combination is just chef’s kiss. Rude organized chaos.
And that might be the whole point. They sound alive, annoyed, locked in, and very much not interested in behaving.
Maruja are not here to decorate your afternoon 7 € latte.
Actually, fuck your latte.
Listen where you listen:
