Gary Marx To Release “Red Planet Blue” Solo Album

September 18th will see the release of a new album by Gary Marx, the man best known for co-founding The Sisters Of Mercy with Andrew Eldritch and forming Ghost Dance in the wake of the original line up of the sisters imploding. Marx continues to defy expectations and throw the coolest of curveballs, his new album, Red Planet Blue, will be released via Infrasons E.Y. Records and is the eagerly awaited follow-up to 2026’s Green Ginger Jive. Red Planet Blue promises to be another collection of 70’s inspired songs bursting at the seams with teenage dreams and interstellar themes. Good ol’ Bolan Boogie is still in evidence, but the influences are more wide-ranging than on its predecessor. What started out as simply an attempt to tidy up some loose ends has grown and grown. Seventy-two minutes of ‘uninterrupted listening pleasure’ as the sleeve proudly proclaims.

The recording process was slightly different from the previous album, where some songs were written specifically for the guest singers involved. This time for Red Planet Blue, Marx recorded a finished version of every song before considering inviting anyone else to hop onboard. There was almost an ecological drive to how the album was pieced together. Red Planet Blue harks back to and celebrates a bygone era of music and fashion, colour and pizazz that takes the listener on a lengthy but completely absorbing journey. Strap yourself in and enjoy the ride!

“What’s it like!? Don’t use the ‘c’ word, it’s not a concept album! However, it is 72 minutes of music spread over four sides of vinyl. “Side one is the poppiest, side three is the most varied and adventurous, side four is the silliest, and side two has the most elephants. It’s bigger and bolder, I’ve thrown everything at it this time round, saxes, synths, sci-fi sound fx, stand-up. It had to be 72 minutes long – I became a teenager in ’72, this album represents me closing the circle. I decided I only wanted to invite people to sing who were my age. I relaxed the rule slightly for the CD, but on the vinyl, I needed kids who would have been in my year’s intake at high school. That became my gang. I wanted to make use of all the material I’d generated through the time of this project in some way. That extended to using clips from interviews and dialogue from live shows…re-purpose, repair and recycle became a mantra of sorts and led to some surprising inclusions to make an album that found inspiration in a couple of unlikely places – The Who Sell Out, and A Wizard A True Star by Todd Rundgren. The pirate radio aspect appealed to me from The Who album, and so I use a similar device to connect the main songs. With Todd, I liked the idea of not forcing every idea to be a 3 minute song, or even a song at all. As you might expect, family and friends pop up among the cast of extras. Apologies if I’ve stolen anything, I was always light-fingered as a kid.” (Gary Marx)