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London-based producer and multi-instrumentalist Ben Marc has shared another single from his forthcoming Glass Effect album (out this Spring from Innovative Leisure). “Sometimes Slow” pairs a virtuosic skittering drum performance with a circling xylophone pattern that opens up with layers of guitar, synths, and looping percussion. Alongside previous album singles “Mustard,” “Give Me Time,” and “The Way We Are,” the new song is illustrative of his singular vision, unifying a profusion of influences (that chart his personal journey from the concert hall, to the jazz club, to the dance club, and back) into a sublime whole, underscoring the evolution of his quest for a distinctive sound: lambent, low-key, and dizzyingly intricate. https://smarturl.it/BM_sometimesslow
See a recent piece on Edition where Ben Marc breaks down his top 5 most influential albums.
Producer and multi-instrumentalist Ben Marc, a key figure at the leading edge of the UK jazz scene, has just shared a follow up to his September’s Breathe Suite EP (roundly praised by NPR, The Wire, The Guardian, and more) and subsequent single “Way We Are” with another bespoke song that continues to hint at more work to come in 2022. Out today, “Give Me Time” features a stuttering drum beat, off-kilter clapping and lilting string arrangements that provide the perfect backdrop for its urgent and sometimes haunting vocals sung by Judi Jackson - - “Everyone needs more time. Time to heal!”
Marc, the alias of Neil Charles, has quite the musical pedigree. While studying classical double bass at the prestigious Trinity College of Music in London, Marc had a chance meeting with Gary Crosby, linchpin of Tomorrow’s Warriors (the crucial London jazz educators that connect the UK new wave luminaries, from Nubya Garcia to Moses Boyd) after which the possibility of jazz shone like a beacon. This began a game-changing journey that led him to play with the jazz group Empirical and then to form the free-jazz trio Zed-U, alongside Shabaka Hutchings (Sons of Kemet, The Comet is Coming) and drummer Tom Skinner, whose collaborations ignited a new passion in Marc for electronic music, soaking in the sounds of garage, broken beat, and drum’n’bass. Marc’s new solo music has unified these influences into a sublime whole.