Mamarlarky are an exciting Los Angeles-based four-piece set to release their debut self-titled album via Fire Talk on November 20.

The band’s sound is an idiosyncratic mix of influences as diverse as free-form jazz, instrumental psychedelia and unabashed pop, all filtered through garage rock energy and an exuberant gang-like verve that is set to draw fervent fandom from anyone even slightly like-minded.

Given the breadth and depth of the well they draw from, Secret Meeting just had to get an insight into their many influences…

Albums we love

Santo & Johnny – Adagio ( Livvy’s Choice – guitar/vocals)

I find myself coming back to this album really regularly, to decompress and sway. I believe it’s mostly covers, the standout tracks for me are Adagio 2 and Fool On the Hill. It’s that special timbre of a steel guitar that feels so romantic and easy and inquisitive! I find when I’m writing lead lines and vocal melodies I can kind of hear what I imagine a soaring steel guitar line would do and it brings out some interesting choices for me. I love the EQ of the steel too, it just pokes out of the track in the nicest way. Now more than ever I’m reaching for albums that soothe and dance with me and all of Santo & Johnny’s stuff does that for me. – Livvy

George Benson – Breezin’ (Dylan’s choice -drums)

Breezin’ captures this one specific feeling so well… you wake up on a beautiful Saturday morning, get in your car, and start making your way through town to do something you absolutely love to do. The melodies interplayed between the instruments on every song are constant hooks, and the Marvin Gaye level production and audio quality (especially the drum and guitar sounds) blow me away every time. The opening track is just a classic, and the guitar playing is incredible throughout. It’s a great listen top to bottom and I highly recommend it for your next fun sunny weekend. – Dylan

Animal Crossing GameCube Soundtrack (Noor’s choice – bass)

This is the prototype. The inspiration behind the inspiration. My muse and my everything. I didn’t think perfection was attainable but here it is, right in front of our faces. Each song was made to be played over and over again during an hour of each day in the game and songs like these that you don’t get sick of listening to every single day are what we all aspire to be making. If you were to tell me I had to choose a real album I would say Yellow Magic Orchestra’s USA, because a lot of those songs sound like they could be in the game! – Noor

Weather Report – Black Market (Michael’s choice – keys) 

As many times as I have listened to this record, it never fails to leave me in awe. The atmosphere of exploration and fluidity, punctuated by these transcendent coordinated moments of release… it’s a masterwork of musical teamwork. The eventual breakthrough into the ‘chorus’ on the title track, and the wavering resolution to a chaotic synth solo half-way through Cannon Ball are some of my all-time favorite musical moments. Zawinul’s choices of otherworldly-yet-earthy keyboard tones and unconventional melodies are endless sources of inspiration, as is the snaking fretless bass work, which has always been a touchstone for my synth bass playing. When I’m looking for a record to take me out of reality into another place I reach for this one. – Michael

A film we love

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

We mainly chose this movie because ever so often Michael will play the melody the aliens use and see if we notice. We like that the note sequence soothes the alien and feel like we relate on some level. Generally we watch a lot of horror and sci-fi so this is just a part of that obsession. – Livvy

A book we love

NK Jemisin – The Broken Earth Series

Is it cheating to do a trilogy? Legit the three books in this series were probably my favorite I’ve read in the past decade. I’ve definitely always been a fantasy fiend so I think that’s partially why these hit so hard for me but these books had me fully immersed in this other world to the point where I would stop reading and have to re-acclimate myself to reality. The general gist is that it’s a trilogy about Earth after humans expelled the moon from their orbit and the story is centred around a woman who has the ability to manipulate earth but also everyone like her has been either killed or essentially enslaved to cull earthquakes even though they’re powerful af so she has to keep it a secret or whatever while also the world is ending I guess !!!! There are layers that I can’t even get into but N.K. Jemisin is .. literally the goat. – Noor