MARLEY CARROLL

Marley Carroll is a prodigious multi-instrumentalist, producer and DJ from Asheville, North Carolina. The beginnings of his musicianship sprang from training in piano, percussion and scratch DJ technique. His debut album, Melanaster is the result of meticulous bedroom alchemy, sounding like a lost Radiohead LP submerged in ten feet of salt water. Marley created Melanaster entirely on his own. The album’s touchstones are found in the space between the beautiful haze of early Nineties shoegaze rock (My Bloody Valentine) and early 2000’s IDM (Autechre, Squarepusher). The result is smeared, melancholy pop songs tethered to abstract electronic rhythms, what NPR called “gorgeously subdued glitch-pop”. Marley’s work has been featured on All Songs Considered, the TCIAF re:sound podcast, and the award-winning documentary, Pelada. The track “Flying Nomura Theme” was given a place on volume four of the respected What.CD compilation, and was voted the #1 track. In 2012, Marley has developed a new solo PA set to bring a more raw and boundary-pushing version of his music to live audiences. Combining vocals, keyboard, turntable, X1 MIDI controller, Serato, and a custom Logic interface, Marley transforms into something of a one man symphony. Quietly and humbly, Marley’s performance illustrates the irony of a painfully beautiful life. Like the ocean, his show is universal and inclusive yet does not let us forget that we are small and alone. To witness the live performance is undeniably the human experience. As a DJ, Marley Carroll fluently blends together a curated selection of IDM, minimal house, indie rock, hip hop and a few pop staples. His sets include masterful mixing, innovative glitch technique and the skillful scratching that earned him high praise and accolades from a young age. He has a sixth-sense ability in reading his crowd’s reaction to steer his sets in all the right directions. Making all selections pertinent to his audience, no matter what their tastes, it is not uncommon for people to walk away with a newly discovered appreciation for genres they never understood or cared for. Never before has a DJ so creatively mixed seemingly uncooperative styles of music into one cohesive masterpiece. At age 17, Marley won the title of best scratch DJ in North Carolina by winning the Guitar Center’s Spin Off competition. He has shared the stage with such great artists as RJD2, Prefuse 73, Blackalicious, Martyn, Emancipator, Eskmo, Tokimonsta, Eprom, Lipp Service and more and was recently voted one of the top local DJs by his fellow Western North Carolina citizens.