Humanist’s self-titled debut album was a swirling Niagara of fuzzed-out melody and noise; visceral, cinematic, mesmerising, a big, triumphant album featuring vocal contributions from Mark Lanegan, Dave Gahan, Mark Gardener (Ride) and Joel Cadbury (UNKLE), among others. A soaring record of huge ambition, it was Rob’s first solo project after his band Exit Calm split, and also the first record he’d ever fully produced. It was something of a showcase, a powerhouse, and it sounded like Marshall could smell victory – but just as his masterwork was ready to go, Covid 19 stopped everything dead in its tracks, a tour was cancelled, and the world sank into a long limbo...
Not long after the limbo of lockdown, the untimely death of Marshall’s key collaborator, Mark Lanegan, with whom he shared a deep and ongoing musical friendship, came as a tragic blow. Marshall wrote and produced six tunes for Lanegan on their first collaboration together, the much-celebrated album ‘Gargoyle’ (2017 Heavenly Records). Lanegan’s next album ‘Somebody’s Knocking’ (Heavenly Records October 2019) featured six more co-writes from Marshall. The first tracks they ever worked on together were included on the first Humanist album.
