Press

“The guitars are like hot-coiled snakes, the drum patterns seem totally random, and the vocals are almost as unintelligible as Thom Yorke at his most out-there, but damned if this isn’t the most captivating oddity to come out of Vancouver this year. ”
– Georgia Straight

“Capturing the feeling of the Arctic region in music would be quite the task for any band. It’s no surprise then that Arctic – the band created by Marcus Martin, native of the Northwest Territories – divides listeners. Often pegged as everything from Radiohead to Yes, Arctic’s mixture of lush prog rock, brooding folk, and electro ambient has claimed one of Westfest’s 2009 headlining sets.”
– Cormac Rea, Ottawa Xpress

“Actually, what Today Brought Me Here sounds like is a sane version of Thom Yorke’s The Eraser – and that is meant to be a compliment because Arctic’s intense focus means better songs. Some may take awhile to warm up to the electronic backdrops, but with Martin’s lush vocals and the band’s slow brooding build-ups, Arctic are bound to melt even the coldest of hearts.”
– Popjournalism

“They won’t leap across the bar with a broken beer bottle and stab you in the throat; rather, they will slip under your skin with the ease of a skilled anaesthetist and leave you swaying rhythmically back and forth, thinking about how cool your hand looks when you move it in front of your face.”
– Sleazegrinder

“…Their melancholic harmonies mix in dark, haunting folk and ethereal art-rock akin to Radiohead or Fleet Foxes. Plus, if there were a soundtrack to the Arctic, a set of sounds that properly represented desolately beautiful spaces, this would be it. Arctic sounds, well, like the Arctic. It’s bleak but meaningful music, like a distant light faintly illuminating a piece of tundra, despite everything else around it being pitch black.”
– Echo Weekly (full article)

NXNE 2005:
“I stayed for the entire show and was thankful that so many people suggested Arctic. Had there not been such a strong buzz about the band with the people that I had talked to, I probably would have gone home without ever having heard them. I think that goes to show the power of word of mouth!”
– Brady Dillsworth Blog

NXNE 2006:
“Cool in their own special sort of way.”
– Chartattack

“Nice work and beautiful songs”
– Michael Brauer (Coldplay, Simon & Garfunkel, Ron Sexsmith, Bob Dylan, Rachel Yamagata, Jeff Buckley)

“Your voice and vibe sound beautiful”
– Pat Mastelotto (King Crimson, Mr. Mister, David Sylvian, XTC)