The pull of the unseen force, surrendering to the unknown and unknowable.
These are themes that Sydney artist Marcus Whale has long been exploring in his work, whether the vampiric horror of The Hunger (2021) or the spiritual rapture of Ecstasy (2024). His live performance plays on unpredictability; he emerges from behind you in the crowd, wielding an instrument you didn’t know he played, he shines a light in your face both disorienting and enthralling you.
On his fifth solo album Nether, these themes of the unknown are sent downwards into the Underworld. Nether is the maze of sewers and tunnels that run underneath a city, it’s the taboos of queerness in polite society, the history of colonial violence that underpins everything here in so-called Australia. Truths that call and echo from below, that threaten to shake the already tenuous foundations they lay under. Nether knows that these things cannot stay hidden forever, that they will scratch and claw their way up to the surface, gasping for air.
If Ecstasy was an ascension, Nether plummets you back face down into the earth, fists in the dirt. Contrasting Ecstasy’s choir-like vocal arrangements and rising synths, Nether revels in deep subs and vibrating, distorted basslines. Sprawling tracks like ‘Dark Room’ and ‘Coil’ start from simple guitar or synth loops, slowly building tension until they explode into exhilarating drum breaks in their final minutes. Bells and percussion from experimental musicians Bree Van Ryk, Chloe Kim and Jacques Emery bring further mystical energy to the music, played in hypnotic polyrhythmic spirals that suck you in deeper and deeper.
The more subdued moments of Nether are equally mesmerising, pulling focus to Marcus’ angelic vocals. On the seven-and-a-half minute ‘Hide’ the artist sings to an unknowable romantic interest over droning synth and vocal layers, while the HTRK inspired guitar-ballad ‘Descending’ depicts the “sweet relief” of giving into desire: “Melting into your grip / I go straight to hell within your reach”.
Nether is just the latest offering of Marcus Whale’s decades-long practice of ambitious, committed artistry and it’s best enjoyed with the same level of attention. If you can face the murky depths it reveals.
Words by Louisa Christie