Marc With A C Thanatophobia Stripe Vinyl Edition

Thanatophobia isn’t just a big word, it’s the first Marc With a C album of (mostly) original material for what’s being dubbed “Phase II”; After 21 years of portraying a combustible persona to fit the bizarre, darkly humorous yet emotionally devastating, minutiae-obsessed, lo-fi DIY records that Marc Sirdoreus created to find a way to bring them to the stage, Marc returns for “Phase II” dropping the stage act, keeping the stage name, and being himself on record for the first time.

Thanatophobia sees Marc Sirdoreus, (a genderfluid person compared with the highly male-presenting Marc With a C Phase I persona, and Marc is fine with “he” for pronouns), confronting most of his deepest fears and anxieties head first. For the production, Marc limited himself to only the instruments that he would have owned in December of 1999 if a record were expected within six months, often beginning with melodic ideas from songs that an early producer had forced Marc to remove from the sessions of the earliest Phase I albums. Expect sonic experiments, the prerequisite character studies, brutal truths about the human condition, and plenty of moments when you aren’t sure if you’re supposed to laugh, cry, or both.

The vinyl, CD and digital download will come with a bonus “enhanced” stereo mix to play in sync with Thanatophobia known as Phobophobia, to give a highly immersive view into this sound-world. Catherine Blackard created a potentially groundbreaking piece of visual art for each format that will reveal wholly different cover art depending on the color of the light bulb you have near your player.

Perhaps most surprising of all is Marc’s decision to leave his DIY days in the past, partnering with Needlejuice Records, also reaching an agreement with the label to reissue as much of the ’99-‘21 Phase I Marc With a C catalog on every format possible.