Indie pop keeps finding new ways to feel both familiar and slightly unhinged, and Desire Machines just handed us one of the more enjoyable examples. Their new single “Searching for the Soul of Marianne Moore” (out via Now Listen) doesn’t settle for pretty guitars and a wistful vocal. It takes a propulsive motorik bassline, shimmering guitars, electronic textures and Kianna Blue’s voice, then sends the whole thing on a surreal chase through stolen Martian gin, Andy Warhol’s 1974 New York and a giant eagle with laser vision. The result sits comfortably in indie pop while leaning hard into dream-pop atmosphere and art-rock edge.
The track opens with that insistent rhythmic drive the band describe as motorik, then layers in the kind of cinematic guitar work that nods toward Bowie, Roxy Music and Brian Eno without turning into pastiche. Blue’s vocals sit right in the middle of it, clear enough to carry the strange narrative but never fighting the production. When the song hits the eagle transformation section—“I transform into a giant eagle / With laser vision sight / Swoop down into the city / Feeling kinda pretty”—it feels playful rather than pretentious. Later references to “Chelloveck Chelloveck Britva Brooko” drop in Clockwork Orange slang without derailing the groove. The whole thing stays catchy even while the imagery keeps shifting.
Desire Machines are an international dream-pop and art-rock collective based between London, Brighton, Amsterdam and Berlin. At the centre are Mark Headley, Kianna Blue and Marlou Zandvliet. This single pulls in musicians from different generations and scenes. Guitarist Kevin Armstrong and the late bassist Matthew Seligman both played with David Bowie’s Live Aid band; their contributions sit alongside Headley’s guitars, synths and effects and drums from Brighton’s ELLiS·D, named Far Out Magazine’s Live Musician of the Year 2025. The band produced it themselves, mixed it with Dave Pemberton, and had it mastered by Christian Wright at Abbey Road. That pedigree shows up in the finished record—tight, spacious and a little otherworldly—without ever sounding like a museum piece.
The release is part of a double A-side 7-inch vinyl single alongside “Astronauts,” a dreamier, more atmospheric track that arrives digitally on 2 November. The band have been open about what the pairing means to them: musicians from very different musical worlds meeting inside the same recordings, each adding something distinctive, the exchange feeling present-tense rather than nostalgic. In a year when plenty of indie pop and dream-pop acts are still chasing either pure nostalgia or pure sheen, this cross-generational approach stands out. It also fits a broader pattern—collectives and one-off line-ups keep producing some of the most interesting alternative guitar music right now, especially when they treat vinyl as more than an afterthought.
“Searching for the Soul of Marianne Moore” is available to stream and buy now across the usual platforms. If you like your indie pop with a bit of literary mischief and a motorik pulse, this one rewards repeat plays. The imagery is strange enough to keep you listening for the next odd detail, and the production is solid enough that the song never collapses under its own ideas.
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What do you make of the surreal lyric approach here? Does the literary angle pull you in or does the groove do the heavy lifting? Drop a comment and let me know.
