Manchester’s Maruja release their critically acclaimed debut album ‘Pain to Power’, recorded at Low Four Studio and produced by Samuel W Jones, who the band worked with on the three EPs that preceded their debut full length.

‘Pain to Power’ is an extraordinary body of work that not only confirms Maruja as a creative force of nature but finds a band deeply concerned with the power of community, solidarity and love as forces for social and political change. The album echoes this across its flawless eight tracks, taking the listener from the frustration and anger of openers ‘Bloodsport’ and the BBC 6Music A-listed ‘Look Down On Us’ through to the sublime spirituality of ‘Zaytoun’ and the staggering album closer ‘Reconcile’ - a nine minute opus that builds around Joe Carroll’s transcendent sax, into lyricist, rapper and singer Harry Wilkinson’s impassioned pleas to “pray for love” and “have no fear”.

This cycle of tragedy and hope is at the very heart of ‘Pain to Power’. “It starts off brutal and turns into something powerful and expressive,” says Harry. “We have to trust in that circle of life, and in our power to overcome pain.” The album follows the arc of one of Maruja’s live shows: an onslaught of energy, arriving at a place of transcendence, the music itself rising from the ashes.

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Maruja

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Following a precocious few years in music, it feels fitting now for Mann’s debut album to start at the beginning. Named Roxwell after the cherished street of her childhood home, the album is a tender ode to her formative years. An only child to loving parents, she soaked in the world from their house in West London, watching music documentaries with her father, writing songs in her bedroom and performing to her parents in the kitchen. “I’m very sentimental and wanted to pay tribute to that house, which is the closest thing to me. So much of my history is there”, she notes. A gentle and resonant album, Roxwell exudes the warmth and care of that nurturing environment, propelling Mann into the world with a fundamental desire to connect with people.

“Being in love is a very big thing for me”, says Mann. “Within this album, I’ve been in and out of love a few different times. Some of these songs are word-for-word records of what that was like.” Roxwell, then, is a charmed exploration of love from a person eager to understand and feel its presence in her life, charting its course from infatuation to intimacy to dissolution.

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