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“Often classified as a jazz artist, though obviously when you listen there’s a whole lot more going on in his music than that. On Glass Effect he keeps pushing the boundaries, he just keeps pushing out and stretching.” - NPR
"swirling arrangements—which synthesize jazz, hip-hop, neoclassical, and electronic" - PITCHFORK
“The music swirls and floats past like a multi-coloured cloud” - STEREOGUM
"It’s one part Four Tet to Freddie Hubbard, the intersection where Bonobo meets Blue Note, reflective of the contemporary UK jazz scene’s penchant for modern club sounds as well as traditional jazz performance.” - TREBLE
Producer and multi-instrumentalist Ben Marc, a key figure of London’s cutting edge jazz scene, has just released his debut full length, Glass Effect, via Innovative Leisure. A follow up to last September’s acclaimed Breathe Suite EP, the album is an assured and accomplished 13-track realization of a singular vision that unifies a multitudinous profusion of influences (from free-jazz, to broken beat, to hip hop and beyond) into a sublime whole, underscoring his quest for a distinctive sound: lambent and low-key, yet dizzyingly intricate. The album is rounded out by stunning LP artwork and packaging by accomplished designer Vlad Sepetov (Kendrick Lamar, Freddie Gibbs & Madlib, Brittany Howard). As a counterpoint to the album’s meticulously layered production, the last couple of weeks Marc has shared a pair of raucous and soulful live studio videos by his crack six-piece band performing album highlights “Mustard” and “First Batch,” underscoring just how potent his songwriting is.
It’s a rare talent that can link Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, Ethio-jazz pioneer Mulatu Astatke, Afrofuturists Sun Ra Arkestra, and grime legend Dizzee Rascal, but Marc has long blurred musical worlds and criss-crossed boundaries. On double and electric bass, he flits between jazz, classical, and electronic music, whether playing on Greenwood’s award-winning score for the film The Master or touring with Astatke for over 10 years, as well as working with the likes of Matthew Herbert, Charles Mingus, China Moses, and Soweto Kinch – and even joining Tina Turner onstage.
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 (The Smile), whose collaborations ignited a new passion in Marc for electronic music.
One of the reasons that he started writing Glass Effect, says Marc, was going to nightclubs in Ibiza and experiencing the heady sun-dappled euphoria of a summery dancefloor, as well as the beat-driven production of artists like Four Tet, Bonobo, Machinedrum, DJ Shadow, and Madlib. But the album also wears its London influence prominently - on “Jawbone,” there are echoes of broken beat, the genre that came out of house and 2step in the early-2000s, while the Mike Skinner of the new UK scene, Joshua Idehen, intones over the brass-led “Dark Clouds” about the resilience of being a Black man in the city. Ultimately, Glass Effect is an uplifting record. “Keep Moving,” a track Marc wrote in Japan in a hotel room at 4am after a show with Jose James, and which again features Attica Blues singer Midnight Roba on stunning vocals, feels like it’s beckoning a bright future over daintily dancing flute. “It’s hopeful,” says Marc of the album. “We all need as much of that as we can get.”
Mapache — the LA duo of Sam Blasucci and Clay Finch — share “Love Can’t Hold Me,” the breezily romantic new single from their album Roscoe’s Dream, out June 10 on Innovative Leisure / Calico Discos. With a shuffling trash can drum beat and trebly garage rock guitars that rough up the song’s slick, effortlessly harmonized chorus, “Love Can’t Hold Me” would fit snugly alongside anything from The Velvet Underground’s Loaded. It’s a crystallization of Mapache’s strengths as songwriters, as well as a showcase for a whole new set of tricks that they’ve honed since growing into a full band project.
"Love Can't Hold Me is a way to describe how it feels when you fall in love. Bookstore jazz, freedom, amnesia, among other things."
Hawaiian-born, Long Beach-based songwriter Lionel Boy is today sharing his new single "LOVE" from forthcoming EP 'Up at 4', due April 29th via Innovative Leisure. This will then be followed by a second EP 'Down at 8', which is due June 27th.
Speaking about the new single, Lionel Boy said "I demoed this one out one weekend while my girlfriend, Casey, was away. I had a general idea of direction - but thankfully I had Brett Kramer there to really help bring these other ideas to life. The song is short but I think its takes you through a few different levels, a lot like falling in love. It starts off with a slow build then the drums transition it into something more intense and exciting. The siren/alarm that comes in at the middle feels like conflict, which we all experience in relationship. The acoustic guitar portion brings it back to a sobering state and the song ends a bit…up in the air."
Lionel Boy’s sound mixes spacey synthesizers, impromptu breakbeats & bedroom pop. The airy, jazz-cracked, electronic pop of Lionel Boy belies a wistful romanticism, a careful observational streak, and a meditative fixation on life and death. Lionel Boy is soulful and easy-going, both introspective and laissez faire, extremely mellow but never soft-headed.
'Up at 4' and 'Down at 8' are a collection of songs that started off as demos in Lionel Boy's living room. Following the release of his debut album, Lionel Boy wanted to continue exploring producing and collaborating with friends.
"I felt like I spent all and none of 2021 working on these songs. Producing these EPs looked like a lot of early mornings and evenings spent at my computer screen. Some days feeling like I made no changes at all. I’m a pretty early riser—waking up at 4 am which are when many of these songs came to mind. I spend most of my time working when the world is quiet which sounds nice but isn’t always the easiest to do when you live in an older apartment with downstairs neighbors. Everything I do to get things moving in the morning is an inconvenience to the people around me—the creaky wood floors, tracking vocals, tapping my drum machine...just one of the many ways I’ve woken up my girlfriend throughout the years. Trying to find a balance between making my music when the creativity strikes while also being a respectful roommate/neighbor is tricky but we make it work.
I’m grateful for the people who have helped me elevate these songs beyond this space. Friends like Brett Kramer, Andrew Pham, Ukiah Bogle, Casey Liu, Nathan Hawelu, Harlem (Dotager) and Jonny Bell were crucial to making these songs what they are now."
Maria Chiara Argirò’s hypnotic new single “Blossom” was inspired by the beauty and perfection of nature and questions what it means to grow in this world – as a human or plant. Lyrically the song evolved into a fairytale scene. Maria tells, “A girl wakes up in the night, looks out of the window and sees someone she loves leaving, probably for good. She wants to call out and say ‘don't go’, but the words don't come out. Instead a little flower drops out of her mouth. The flower represents growing and moving on from something, or a deeper understanding of the situation. The flower comes out instead of the words that are holding you back.”
The upcoming LP, Forest City, is due out on May 6, 2022.
“I think she’s gonna blow your mind” BBC’s Maryanne Hobbs
"a clubby departure for Argirò, trading in clever chord changes for a hypnotic beat & swelling synth pads." FADER
“In a month all your cool friends will talk about Maria Chiara Argirò” Rolling Stone (IT)
“...a seemingly effortless blend of electronic elements with dance beats and a chocolate fudge swirl of jazz trumpet, this builder commands center stage. Play it loud for a weekend catharsis” KCRW
"drifts between club culture's left-field aspects and jazz improvisation" CLASH