Marley Carroll – ‘Southern Research Station’ Review

What does Marley Carroll sound like?

Downtempo grooves and sensibilities, but usually with a chunkier, grittier house edge.

The review of ‘Southern Research Station’ by Marley Carroll

Marley Carroll’s latest EP comes from the DNA of devastation and resilience. In 2024, Marley had just released ‘One More Year ‘, and was gaining momentum with his electronic production and smooth grooves. Then, a few weeks later, Hurricane Helene ruined his hometown of Asheville. Everything came to an immediate stop. Evacuation was followed by a period of rebuilding. Not only was resilience required, but a sanguine taste of dreams left floating remained. ‘Southern Research Station’ is what came next. It’s a thoughtful and at times reflective take on electronic music. It mourns the path not taken, but forges a new path of inspiration, as the natural world becomes a provider and a cruel mistress, too.

‘Cicadas’ opens the EP beautifully. It samples the cicadas and meshes them into chopped-up vocal samples over clean, stumbling beats. Scattered twangs of zithers nod to the idea of a zen space, whilst pillowed, malleted handpans carefully patter out warm metallic tones. The track’s bass is low and largely delivered by the wooden stick percussion beats that feel borrowed from hip-hop and downbeat acoustic drum kits. For a downtempo-esque track, it’s pacey, and the rhythmic flow is full and buoyant. The dancefloor zen-house track for the release is ‘Chroma Falls’. The vision was to create a pointillistic cascade of waterfall arpeggios, and the track delivers that in waves. Caribou and especially Bonobo fans will be in their element with this piece. The beat slaps in a confident and unpushy manner, letting the popcorn-arps, soft wiry pads, and occasional vocal snippet guide you slowly through the song. I feel like ‘Southern Research Station’ runs at two speeds simultaneously. The beats feel faster than the melodies, providing a slow-motion glide to your senses, whilst actually being a fairly uptempo release.

‘Green Flash’ lets Marley Carroll loose on warbling Moog synths. The inherent detuned, bloomed nature of the Moog always brings a melancholy to me, and Marley leaves the Moog naked and exposed throughout the track. Unusual vocal samples, empty air, and hues of other synths creep in, but much like the opening track, it is in service of an introspective glow. A full bassline and chord structure only hit for the last 90 seconds, giving an 80s apocalypse in a mug vibe to the closing third of the track. That leaves ‘Open Like The Sky’ to close the release with a warm mixture of organic instruments and nature recordings carefully overlaid onto a driving house beat. Much like ‘Chroma Falls’, this track keeps the rhythm unshowy, and that allows all the melodic instrumentation to fill the space. The echo-play on ‘Open Like The Sky’ is superb, as various metallic tine samples dovetail each other to perfection. It’s an assured finale.

I love how unflustered and cohesive the sound design is. There are a lot of different samples, from birds to rain to tine instruments, metallic handpans, and various synths and drum loops… yet it is buttery smooth throughout. This takes me back to the genesis of this EP. When life pushes you off course, you have to knuckle down and think about how to stay grounded. This EP’s sound personifies that idea, because it’s the comforting sounds that lead the production, and the groove feels like the world is spinning on with or without you, like an omnipresent energy. Marley Carroll has created a great EP that could be used to focus and quiet the mind, whilst letting the body loose. This is one of my favourite understated releases of 2026.

Recommended track: Chroma Falls

---

Support Higher Plain Music

Higher Plain Music is part of the Higher Plain Network – a one-man indie media project. If you like what I do, please consider supporting me using Patreon for as little as $1/£1 a month. In return, you’ll receive additional perks for supporting me, such as behind-the-scenes content and free downloads. You can also donate using PayPal.

If you can’t help financially, then reading and sharing the website helps, too. When you click on an Amazon affiliate buy now link and purchase something on Amazon, I receive a few pence in referral commission. All your support will enable me to produce better content, more often. I’d love to make this a full-time media network, and your support can make that happen. Thank you for helping keep truly independent media alive.