Spin marvel

R E V I E W S

All About Jazz
REVIEW  - SPIN MARVEL
BABEL/FIRE 010
By John Kelman

Appearances can be deceptive. Martin France has built a career over the past two decades in largely acoustic environs. Along with being a member of the cooperative ECM group First House from the late 1980s, the British drummer has been involved in over fifty projects, including saxophonist Iain Ballamy’s More Jazz (Basho, 2007) and pianist Gwilym Simcock’s Perception (Basho, 2007) and John Taylor’s Angel of the Presence (Cam Jazz, 2006). While he’s the UK’s most ubiquitous jazz drummer, none of his past projects can prepare you for this first album as a leader.

Although issued under the group name Spin Marvel, this is clearly France’s project. In addition to drums (acoustic and electronic), he contributes keyboards, programming and sequencing. He's also is the primary voice on this electronica/ambient-tinged record. It is a collaborative effort, however, including guitarist John Parricelli, bassist Tim Harries and keyboardist/drummer Terje Evensen—the latter a Norwegian connection that makes considerable sense, since Spin Marvel shares much with Scandinavian groups like Supersilent, Ultralyd and Huntsville. Still, while electronic sounds dominate Spin Marvel’s landscape, tracks like “Gwig9” do place more conventional instrumental interplay at the forefront, as Harries and France engage in some fiery interaction.

Still, Spin Marvel is more about color and texture than conventional form, rhythm or melody. France doesn’t entirely dispense with the concept of predefined shape, however, though he leans more towards the cinematic. “Nepenthe” begins with layered guitar and bass tremolos, with one or both occasionally shifting in pitch. Giving way to gentle electronic percussion loops that stand alone, the guitar and bass ultimately reenter, gradually overtaking the loops. “Black Wing” opens with a combination of chordal swells, programmed rhythms and real drums, joined by a bass ostinato and jagged guitar shards. The mix/edit is as crucial as what’s being played, with France and Evensen creating a soundscape that, grounded in “real” playing, feels strangely surreal—a sensation that pervades the entire disc.

Electronics play a large part in Spin Marvel’s aesthetic, but it avoids the harsher abstractions of some its Norwegian cousins. Those looking for conventional form may choose to stay away but that would be a mistake, as the album manages to be strangely compelling, even at its most abstruse. And while it is curiously otherworldly, France’s penchant for pulse also keeps it somehow grounded—as do collective improvisations like “Copper Field,” where France, Harries and Parricelli come together for some “no time, no changes” free play.

While many of Spin Marvel’s more extreme Norwegian counterparts are excellent textural conceptualists, they’re often weak in the area of traditional musical expertise (Supersilent being a notable exception). While Spin Marvel shares much with these groups, and even though it’s not always in your face, the fact that France, Parricelli and Harries are accomplished musicians in other contexts makes Spin Marvel an album that, despite its vividly visual mindset, is an unmistakably musical spin on this emergent blend of contemporary form-meets-freedom.

Visit Martin France / Spin Marvel on the web.
Martin France / Spin Marvel at All About Jazz.

Track listing: Nepenthe; Black Wing; Tenebrous; Mono Mouth; Totem; Copper Field; Maki; Gwig9; Dopla.

Personnel: Martin France: drums, electronic drums, programming, sequencing, keyboards; Tim Harries: bass, keyboards; John Parricelli: guitars; Terje Evensen: additional programming and sequencing, keyboards, drums.

Style: Modern Jazz/Free Improvisation |
Published: November 18, 2007

Drummer Magazine #20 REVIEW  - SPIN MARVEL
BABEL/FIRE 010
By Brent Keefe

Given Drummer Martin France´s previous track record, his solo debut is stylistically unexpected. What we have here is a textural soundscape comparable with some of Scandinavias best. Tim Harrie´s rumbling bass introduces the opening track "Nepenthe", with France´s brushwork taking more of a back seat. He firmly takes the wheel, however, on the more menacing "Black Wing", where he admirably combines live drums, programming and sampling to create a rich, dark mood, and suberb on the Bill Frisell-esque "Copper Field". This is definatley a CD that ascends the playlist with each listen.
****

The Guardian 14th July 2005
REVIEW
Martin France / Spin Marvel
by John Fordham.

When you enter a room to find Martin France sitting at the drum kit, you find yourself immediately reassured. In the early 1980s when he was still a teenager, France already seemed like the kind of rising star who was equipped to channel the spirit of Elvin Jones and Tony Williams. In tandem with Django Bates, he attracted plenty of attention, and the two recorded for ECM with the prize-winning band First House.

But those who have heard France sustaining a groove in all manner of relatively orthodox jazz settings are doubtless aware that hanging with Bates and the Loose Tubes school was destined to have a subversive impact on France. In deed Spin Marvel is a far cry from conventional jazz. Live, France’s band often features both Django Bates and saxophonist Iain Ballamy, and there are times during this long exploration of electronic timbres, programmed groves, samples and improvisational drum-and-bass ideas when the presence of said pair’s witty lyricism and creative impatience would have proved welcome.

Instead, France augments his kit with loop-triggered pads, and – in harness with bassist Tim Harries – explores percussion and deep bass textures as much as he does beats. Repetitive single note bass metamorphoses into sinister heartbeat sounds, shuffling drum programs are interwoven with noises like old wooden ships creaking in storms, and long howling guitar turns into furious percussion.

Guitarist John Parricelli occasionally gets the chance to play some Bill Frisell-like melodies, and the spontaneous percussion overshadows any beatbox set-pieces, but there are precious few signs of any jazzy lines. Consequently, fans of France’s previous incarnations will need to be as open-minded as the drummer to understand where Spin Marvel is coming from.

TIME OUT
19/7/05 Album Preview
By Kerstan Mackness

France is one of Europe's finest drummers and probably best know for his association with fellow Loose Tubers Django Bates and Iain Ballamy. With such a pedigree you would expect France's debut to be a whimsical Brit-jazz album but this is very different. Built around (Eno/David Holmes sidekick) Tim Harries' dark, brooding bass lines and France's clattering, electronically augmented drums, this is nightmarish, futuristic ambient jazz, full of brooding throbs and clanking electronics courtesy of Norwegian programmer Terje Evensen.

Jazzwise July
05 Issue 88

By Andy Robson
***

France has always been a consummate all-rounder as
his splendid CV demonstrates, but nothing will quite prepare you for this dramatic mix of acoustic and electronic drums wreathed in programmed
electronics, eery guitar and counterpointed by feisty bass. France, in cahoots with bassist Harries started laying down the music five years ago, and in parts the album sounds overly crafted, a bit too earnestly mulled upon. But overall the variation in styles and colours (within the limited palette France has given
himself) never lets the whole tip into indulgence. So group improvs like "Copper Field", mix with the cacophonous drum climax of "Mono Mouth".

There's also a Japaneese feel, with suggested sounds and rhythms privileged over fleshed out themes - a track like "Totem" resolves out of inchoate swirls of primordial musical matter, without shape or form, yet not without intent, if dark and mysterious intent. "Maki" has a similarly suspended in the ether feel and if at times tracks wander off like the Clangers on acid, it's a small price to pay for an intriguing aural exploration - and there's always a thrash like "Gwig9", a sort of 21st century take on the Crims' Red to wake you from the torpor. This is too intriguing a band to leave as a one off release. More please.

Total Music Magazine
On Line
Reviewed by David Davis

Percussionist Martin France made his name playing with jazz greats like Kenny Wheeler and Evan Parker, and as a member of celebrated ‘80s collective Loose Tubes, which might lead you to expect a fairly orthodox effort for his first solo release. In fact, Spin Marvel is anything but, with France shaping nine atmospheric pieces from processed percussion, shimmering electronics and occasional guitar (the latter courtesy of the fantastic John Parricelli). Black Wing and the sonic slice-and-dice drama of Gwig9 are particularly effective, their sinister soundscapes suggesting that France might well have a future in composing movie soundtracks.

www.bbc.co.uk/reviews/jazz/
18 Aug 2005
Spin Marvel
By Colin Buttimer

Spin Marvel is an intriguing new project led by drummer Martin France, aided by Tim Harries on bass and keyboards, John Parricelli on guitars and Terje Evensen on keyboards, drums and other programming. France first came to notice in the '80s as part of the Loose Tubes big band. Since that group's demise he has worked with Django Bates, Billy Jenkins and a wide variety of other musicians.

The music begins with reverberating bass that gradually meshes with echoing notes from Parricelli's guitar. Brushed drums steal up and overtake this contemplative soundscape while a heart-like pulse beats at its rear, then bass and guitar return for a concluding segment. The clarity of this simple structure allows for contemplation and a welcome sense of mystery.

"Black Wing" is less ruminative, but it continues its predecessor's mood with extended tones suspended over racing drums like the half-remembered memory of breakbeats (particularly the noirscapes of Roni Size and DJ Krust's pre-New Forms releases). There's a flickering, thrumming energy here which becomes genuninely exciting when married to Parricelli's screaming guitar. Interestingly though, his solo is kept in the middle distance with Harries and France dominating the foreground. Although the beats sound partially programmed there's a real sense of rhythmic improvisation that maintains attention where the more rigid rhythms of Two Step and its offspring fail to engage outside of clubland.

"Mono Mouth" is drum and bass re-imagineered by skilled improvisors: there's that particular form of determined attack that only the physicality of instruments played in real-time can achieve. "Mono Mouth" prompts thoughts of Noh theatre Butoh dance while "Totem" presents four minutes of active ambience, a drifting fog that appears to harbour bandits. "Copper Field" recalls the mid-term releases of Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society with France's whirring rhythm mechanisms winding and unwinding over its six minute course.

Given Martin France's history, Spin Marvel is a real surprise. This music is ambitious, abstract and remarkably contemporary. There's no hint of jovial parochialism or the tyranny of 'real jazz' (whatever that means). Spin Marvel deserves the sort of attention that defining labels like Thirsty Ear's Blue Series or Rune Grammofon are accorded, here's hoping it gets it.

Jazz Views on-Line 039 September 2005
Reviewed by Nick Lea

After 25 years as a creative force on the contempoary jazz scene, and having recorded on some 50 albums as sideman, drummer Martin France has now decided to release his first album as leader. An eclectic concoction that brings together elements of rockand jazz within the musical vocabulary used, combined with electronic percussion, sequencing and other technological devices to create a truly tantalising mix.

From the opening bass line laid down by Harries on 'Nepenthe', interspersed with John Parricelli's guitar there is a sense of the unexpected. The barrage of percussion that seems the obvious direction for the music (especially given that there are two drummers featured on the album) just doesn't come. The guitar is used for colouration with bass and drums stepping subtly to the fore, but such is the way all the instruments are blended with the electronic gadgetry that there is the feeling that everything has it's place carefully mapped out in the grand scheme of things.

And this in essense is pretty much the way the CD unfolds. If a track like 'Gwig9' is allowed to cut loose, elsewhere things are kept pretty tight and focussed within the framework and context presented. It is pretty easy for things to then be allowed to fall apart in an environment where the overall shape of the compositions, structure and texture are created after the event at the mixing and editing desks where and an over imaginative mind can lead the music away from the natural flow created by human input in real time into a state of self-indulgence.

It is to France's credit that this never even hints at becoming an issue on a compelling set that travels a considerable distance within it's 42 minute playing time, with a hint of the Orient apparent in several of the pieces. This is a side to Martin's playing that I have not come across before, and now that I have become acquainted I am intrigued t find out where this particular musical journey will lead.

www.mikedolbear.com
Review
By Ed Stern

I don’t know anyone who upon seeing a modern sequencer/audio production program hasn’t wondered what they could do, given time, a studio, enough coffee and a few chums to play the instruments they can’t. Just think, you could sample some stuff, lay down some grooves, play over the top of them, arrange some nice sequences and then tweak and massage them digitally until…um…until they sound good. For most musicians it ends up being the 21st Century equivalent of adding a string section to your band – it just shows up the weakness of the material and the paucity of ideas even more clearly.

Only a very precious few can survive the ruthlessly exposing environment of the digital studio and emerge with more than they went in with. And only a few of them will make anything approaching new music that doesn’t immediately remind you of something else. Among this blessed few avoiding the footsteps of Brian Eno we can now count Martin France, woefully under-rated British drum wonder, longtime best-of-British Jazz sideman and now captain (and builder) of the good ship Spin Marvel.

Justly famed amongst the stickerati for his superlative technique and taste - he’s one of the few drummers who can trigger samples without making them sound like a travelling salesman jabbing at the doorbell - France has broken new ground with Spin Marvel. The band consists of him on drums and percussion, Eno and David Holmes collaborator Tim Harries on bass, fellow former Loose Tube John Parricelli on guitar, and Norwegian drummer Terje Evensen handling keyboards, programming and sequencing.
Spin Marvel CD

In an age where everything has to be neatly labelled for marketing, it’s wonderful that artists are putting out work of this quality that evades any convenient genre. I don’t know what to call it, although there’s something here for everyone. France is best known for his Jazz work with Loose Tubes and Human Chain, but while Spin Marvel showcases his invention and ensemble sensitivity, it doesn’t sound like Jazz as we or anyone else know it. Audiophiles and Sound On Sound subscribers will swoon to the audio alchemy and brilliantly realised soundscapes but may be unfamiliar with this intensity of musical spontaneity and fire while the hard-edge improvisation (sorry “spontaneous composition”) crowd will marvel at the invention and imagination, but may puzzle at the intricacy and calculation of the production. Ascetic ambient techno monkeys will thrill at the intricacy and dynamism of the production, but might boggle at its emotional depth and sweep. Closer to our own hearts, drummer completists who already own all the other albums-by-drummers might expect another contrived menu of grooves and chops sprinkled by a few celebrity mates putting their freebie endorsee instruments through a gentle workout. No such danger here.

Spin Marvel’s success is that it has managed to capture the fierce spontaneity of the musicians’ interplay while transforming their sounds without ending up as a sonic soup. The challenge of digital production is that there are so few restrictions; there’s nothing stopping you from tweaking the sound in every direction, and infinite choice is usually a lethal environment for music, clogging every bar with every possible musical idea. This usually produces albums that are the sonic equivalent of those long-exposure photos of trotting dogs that show the legs in every possible position at once – you just want to hear the one right idea amongst all the clutter. Spin Marvel is a constellation of clear musical ideas, expressed virtuosically, and tastefully tweaking what would appear a limited palette of drums, bass, guitar beyond the familiar into new sonic territory.

France re-imagines the drumkit’s timbres in ways I’ve ever heard before: brushes on the snare are transformed into hi-hats, ride cymbals are gated into cowbells, bass guitar notes triggered as tomtoms, snare rolls suddenly machine-gun out of control as they move from sticked notes to triggered loops and bass drum notes oomph into heartbeats. It’s not all production though; it’s all grounded in the playing, and drum fans will find much to admire. Even when thundering around the kit, France is one of those drummers you feel is always listening harder than he’s playing. His chops are amazing, but they’re in harness to the music. To extend the Marvel metaphor, yes France has superpowers, but has sworn to use them only for good. Particularly impressive is France’s use of trigger pads to add samples and loops to transform texture, not just as pulse and punctuation. He tastefully supports Tim Harries’ bass study on the brooding opener “Nepenthe” with muted brushwork, but squalls over the drum’n’bassy “Black Wing” and the furious “Mono Mouth”. But for every tumultuous workout like the metallic “Gwig9”, there’s a delicate exercise in taste like the Bill Frisell-ish “Copper Field”, where the basslines and time signatures extend, droop and fold like a Dali watch. A lot of electronically-enhanced music can sound arid, but this is so evocative, it’s like the soundtrack to an imaginary film.

Spin Marvel is a challenging piece of work. You’ll either never get through it or play it all day. Highly recommended, particularly to those wondering what technology can do for instead of to music.

	All About Jazz REVIEW - SPIN MARVEL BABEL/FIRE 010 By John Kelman Appearances can be deceptive. Martin France has built a career over the past two decades in largely acoustic environs. Along with being a member of the cooperative ECM group First House from the late 1980s, the British drummer has been involved in over fifty projects, including saxophonist Iain Ballamy’s More Jazz (Basho, 2007) and pianist Gwilym Simcock’s Perception (Basho, 2007) and John Taylor’s Angel of the Presence (Cam Jazz, 2006). While he’s the UK’s most ubiquitous jazz drummer, none of his past projects can prepare you for this first album as a leader. Although issued under the group name Spin Marvel, this is clearly France’s project. In addition to drums (acoustic and electronic), he contributes keyboards, programming and sequencing. He's also is the primary voice on this electronica/ambient-tinged record. It is a collaborative effort, however, including guitarist John Parricelli, bassist Tim Harries and keyboardist/drummer Terje Evensen—the latter a Norwegian connection that makes considerable sense, since Spin Marvel shares much with Scandinavian groups like Supersilent, Ultralyd and Huntsville. Still, while electronic sounds dominate Spin Marvel’s landscape, tracks like “Gwig9” do place more conventional instrumental interplay at the forefront, as Harries and France engage in some fiery interaction. Still, Spin Marvel is more about color and texture than conventional form, rhythm or melody. France doesn’t entirely dispense with the concept of predefined shape, however, though he leans more towards the cinematic. “Nepenthe” begins with layered guitar and bass tremolos, with one or both occasionally shifting in pitch. Giving way to gentle electronic percussion loops that stand alone, the guitar and bass ultimately reenter, gradually overtaking the loops. “Black Wing” opens with a combination of chordal swells, programmed rhythms and real drums, joined by a bass ostinato and jagged guitar shards. The mix/edit is as crucial as what’s being played, with France and Evensen creating a soundscape that, grounded in “real” playing, feels strangely surreal—a sensation that pervades the entire disc. Electronics play a large part in Spin Marvel’s aesthetic, but it avoids the harsher abstractions of some its Norwegian cousins. Those looking for conventional form may choose to stay away but that would be a mistake, as the album manages to be strangely compelling, even at its most abstruse. And while it is curiously otherworldly, France’s penchant for pulse also keeps it somehow grounded—as do collective improvisations like “Copper Field,” where France, Harries and Parricelli come together for some “no time, no changes” free play. While many of Spin Marvel’s more extreme Norwegian counterparts are excellent textural conceptualists, they’re often weak in the area of traditional musical expertise (Supersilent being a notable exception). While Spin Marvel shares much with these groups, and even though it’s not always in your face, the fact that France, Parricelli and Harries are accomplished musicians in other contexts makes Spin Marvel an album that, despite its vividly visual mindset, is an unmistakably musical spin on this emergent blend of contemporary form-meets-freedom. Visit Martin France / Spin Marvel on the web. Martin France / Spin Marvel at All About Jazz. Track listing: Nepenthe; Black Wing; Tenebrous; Mono Mouth; Totem; Copper Field; Maki; Gwig9; Dopla. Personnel: Martin France: drums, electronic drums, programming, sequencing, keyboards; Tim Harries: bass, keyboards; John Parricelli: guitars; Terje Evensen: additional programming and sequencing, keyboards, drums. Style: Modern Jazz/Free Improvisation \| Published: November 18, 2007 Drummer Magazine #20 REVIEW - SPIN MARVEL BABEL/FIRE 010 By Brent Keefe Given Drummer Martin France´s previous track record, his solo debut is stylistically unexpected. What we have here is a textural soundscape comparable with some of Scandinavias best. Tim Harrie´s rumbling bass introduces the opening track "Nepenthe", with France´s brushwork taking more of a back seat. He firmly takes the wheel, however, on the more menacing "Black Wing", where he admirably combines live drums, programming and sampling to create a rich, dark mood, and suberb on the Bill Frisell-esque "Copper Field". This is definatley a CD that ascends the playlist with each listen. ********
	The Guardian 14th July 2005 REVIEW Martin France / Spin Marvel by John Fordham. When you enter a room to find Martin France sitting at the drum kit, you find yourself immediately reassured. In the early 1980s when he was still a teenager, France already seemed like the kind of rising star who was equipped to channel the spirit of Elvin Jones and Tony Williams. In tandem with Django Bates, he attracted plenty of attention, and the two recorded for ECM with the prize-winning band First House. But those who have heard France sustaining a groove in all manner of relatively orthodox jazz settings are doubtless aware that hanging with Bates and the Loose Tubes school was destined to have a subversive impact on France. In deed Spin Marvel is a far cry from conventional jazz. Live, France’s band often features both Django Bates and saxophonist Iain Ballamy, and there are times during this long exploration of electronic timbres, programmed groves, samples and improvisational drum-and-bass ideas when the presence of said pair’s witty lyricism and creative impatience would have proved welcome. Instead, France augments his kit with loop-triggered pads, and – in harness with bassist Tim Harries – explores percussion and deep bass textures as much as he does beats. Repetitive single note bass metamorphoses into sinister heartbeat sounds, shuffling drum programs are interwoven with noises like old wooden ships creaking in storms, and long howling guitar turns into furious percussion. Guitarist John Parricelli occasionally gets the chance to play some Bill Frisell-like melodies, and the spontaneous percussion overshadows any beatbox set-pieces, but there are precious few signs of any jazzy lines. Consequently, fans of France’s previous incarnations will need to be as open-minded as the drummer to understand where Spin Marvel is coming from.
	TIME OUT 19/7/05 Album Preview By Kerstan Mackness France is one of Europe's finest drummers and probably best know for his association with fellow Loose Tubers Django Bates and Iain Ballamy. With such a pedigree you would expect France's debut to be a whimsical Brit-jazz album but this is very different. Built around (Eno/David Holmes sidekick) Tim Harries' dark, brooding bass lines and France's clattering, electronically augmented drums, this is nightmarish, futuristic ambient jazz, full of brooding throbs and clanking electronics courtesy of Norwegian programmer Terje Evensen.
	Jazzwise July 05 Issue 88 By Andy Robson ******* France has always been a consummate all-rounder as his splendid CV demonstrates, but nothing will quite prepare you for this dramatic mix of acoustic and electronic drums wreathed in programmed electronics, eery guitar and counterpointed by feisty bass. France, in cahoots with bassist Harries started laying down the music five years ago, and in parts the album sounds overly crafted, a bit too earnestly mulled upon. But overall the variation in styles and colours (within the limited palette France has given himself) never lets the whole tip into indulgence. So group improvs like "Copper Field", mix with the cacophonous drum climax of "Mono Mouth". There's also a Japaneese feel, with suggested sounds and rhythms privileged over fleshed out themes - a track like "Totem" resolves out of inchoate swirls of primordial musical matter, without shape or form, yet not without intent, if dark and mysterious intent. "Maki" has a similarly suspended in the ether feel and if at times tracks wander off like the Clangers on acid, it's a small price to pay for an intriguing aural exploration - and there's always a thrash like "Gwig9", a sort of 21st century take on the Crims' Red to wake you from the torpor. This is too intriguing a band to leave as a one off release. More please.
	Total Music Magazine On Line Reviewed by David Davis Percussionist Martin France made his name playing with jazz greats like Kenny Wheeler and Evan Parker, and as a member of celebrated ‘80s collective Loose Tubes, which might lead you to expect a fairly orthodox effort for his first solo release. In fact, Spin Marvel is anything but, with France shaping nine atmospheric pieces from processed percussion, shimmering electronics and occasional guitar (the latter courtesy of the fantastic John Parricelli). Black Wing and the sonic slice-and-dice drama of Gwig9 are particularly effective, their sinister soundscapes suggesting that France might well have a future in composing movie soundtracks.
	www.bbc.co.uk/reviews/jazz/ 18 Aug 2005 Spin Marvel By Colin Buttimer Spin Marvel is an intriguing new project led by drummer Martin France, aided by Tim Harries on bass and keyboards, John Parricelli on guitars and Terje Evensen on keyboards, drums and other programming. France first came to notice in the '80s as part of the Loose Tubes big band. Since that group's demise he has worked with Django Bates, Billy Jenkins and a wide variety of other musicians. The music begins with reverberating bass that gradually meshes with echoing notes from Parricelli's guitar. Brushed drums steal up and overtake this contemplative soundscape while a heart-like pulse beats at its rear, then bass and guitar return for a concluding segment. The clarity of this simple structure allows for contemplation and a welcome sense of mystery. "Black Wing" is less ruminative, but it continues its predecessor's mood with extended tones suspended over racing drums like the half-remembered memory of breakbeats (particularly the noirscapes of Roni Size and DJ Krust's pre-New Forms releases). There's a flickering, thrumming energy here which becomes genuninely exciting when married to Parricelli's screaming guitar. Interestingly though, his solo is kept in the middle distance with Harries and France dominating the foreground. Although the beats sound partially programmed there's a real sense of rhythmic improvisation that maintains attention where the more rigid rhythms of Two Step and its offspring fail to engage outside of clubland. "Mono Mouth" is drum and bass re-imagineered by skilled improvisors: there's that particular form of determined attack that only the physicality of instruments played in real-time can achieve. "Mono Mouth" prompts thoughts of Noh theatre Butoh dance while "Totem" presents four minutes of active ambience, a drifting fog that appears to harbour bandits. "Copper Field" recalls the mid-term releases of Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society with France's whirring rhythm mechanisms winding and unwinding over its six minute course. Given Martin France's history, Spin Marvel is a real surprise. This music is ambitious, abstract and remarkably contemporary. There's no hint of jovial parochialism or the tyranny of 'real jazz' (whatever that means). Spin Marvel deserves the sort of attention that defining labels like Thirsty Ear's Blue Series or Rune Grammofon are accorded, here's hoping it gets it.
	Jazz Views on-Line 039 September 2005 Reviewed by Nick Lea After 25 years as a creative force on the contempoary jazz scene, and having recorded on some 50 albums as sideman, drummer Martin France has now decided to release his first album as leader. An eclectic concoction that brings together elements of rockand jazz within the musical vocabulary used, combined with electronic percussion, sequencing and other technological devices to create a truly tantalising mix. From the opening bass line laid down by Harries on 'Nepenthe', interspersed with John Parricelli's guitar there is a sense of the unexpected. The barrage of percussion that seems the obvious direction for the music (especially given that there are two drummers featured on the album) just doesn't come. The guitar is used for colouration with bass and drums stepping subtly to the fore, but such is the way all the instruments are blended with the electronic gadgetry that there is the feeling that everything has it's place carefully mapped out in the grand scheme of things. And this in essense is pretty much the way the CD unfolds. If a track like 'Gwig9' is allowed to cut loose, elsewhere things are kept pretty tight and focussed within the framework and context presented. It is pretty easy for things to then be allowed to fall apart in an environment where the overall shape of the compositions, structure and texture are created after the event at the mixing and editing desks where and an over imaginative mind can lead the music away from the natural flow created by human input in real time into a state of self-indulgence. It is to France's credit that this never even hints at becoming an issue on a compelling set that travels a considerable distance within it's 42 minute playing time, with a hint of the Orient apparent in several of the pieces. This is a side to Martin's playing that I have not come across before, and now that I have become acquainted I am intrigued t find out where this particular musical journey will lead.
	www.mikedolbear.com Review By Ed Stern I don’t know anyone who upon seeing a modern sequencer/audio production program hasn’t wondered what they could do, given time, a studio, enough coffee and a few chums to play the instruments they can’t. Just think, you could sample some stuff, lay down some grooves, play over the top of them, arrange some nice sequences and then tweak and massage them digitally until…um…until they sound good. For most musicians it ends up being the 21st Century equivalent of adding a string section to your band – it just shows up the weakness of the material and the paucity of ideas even more clearly. Only a very precious few can survive the ruthlessly exposing environment of the digital studio and emerge with more than they went in with. And only a few of them will make anything approaching new music that doesn’t immediately remind you of something else. Among this blessed few avoiding the footsteps of Brian Eno we can now count Martin France, woefully under-rated British drum wonder, longtime best-of-British Jazz sideman and now captain (and builder) of the good ship Spin Marvel. Justly famed amongst the stickerati for his superlative technique and taste - he’s one of the few drummers who can trigger samples without making them sound like a travelling salesman jabbing at the doorbell - France has broken new ground with Spin Marvel. The band consists of him on drums and percussion, Eno and David Holmes collaborator Tim Harries on bass, fellow former Loose Tube John Parricelli on guitar, and Norwegian drummer Terje Evensen handling keyboards, programming and sequencing. Spin Marvel CD In an age where everything has to be neatly labelled for marketing, it’s wonderful that artists are putting out work of this quality that evades any convenient genre. I don’t know what to call it, although there’s something here for everyone. France is best known for his Jazz work with Loose Tubes and Human Chain, but while Spin Marvel showcases his invention and ensemble sensitivity, it doesn’t sound like Jazz as we or anyone else know it. Audiophiles and Sound On Sound subscribers will swoon to the audio alchemy and brilliantly realised soundscapes but may be unfamiliar with this intensity of musical spontaneity and fire while the hard-edge improvisation (sorry “spontaneous composition”) crowd will marvel at the invention and imagination, but may puzzle at the intricacy and calculation of the production. Ascetic ambient techno monkeys will thrill at the intricacy and dynamism of the production, but might boggle at its emotional depth and sweep. Closer to our own hearts, drummer completists who already own all the other albums-by-drummers might expect another contrived menu of grooves and chops sprinkled by a few celebrity mates putting their freebie endorsee instruments through a gentle workout. No such danger here. Spin Marvel’s success is that it has managed to capture the fierce spontaneity of the musicians’ interplay while transforming their sounds without ending up as a sonic soup. The challenge of digital production is that there are so few restrictions; there’s nothing stopping you from tweaking the sound in every direction, and infinite choice is usually a lethal environment for music, clogging every bar with every possible musical idea. This usually produces albums that are the sonic equivalent of those long-exposure photos of trotting dogs that show the legs in every possible position at once – you just want to hear the one right idea amongst all the clutter. Spin Marvel is a constellation of clear musical ideas, expressed virtuosically, and tastefully tweaking what would appear a limited palette of drums, bass, guitar beyond the familiar into new sonic territory. France re-imagines the drumkit’s timbres in ways I’ve ever heard before: brushes on the snare are transformed into hi-hats, ride cymbals are gated into cowbells, bass guitar notes triggered as tomtoms, snare rolls suddenly machine-gun out of control as they move from sticked notes to triggered loops and bass drum notes oomph into heartbeats. It’s not all production though; it’s all grounded in the playing, and drum fans will find much to admire. Even when thundering around the kit, France is one of those drummers you feel is always listening harder than he’s playing. His chops are amazing, but they’re in harness to the music. To extend the Marvel metaphor, yes France has superpowers, but has sworn to use them only for good. Particularly impressive is France’s use of trigger pads to add samples and loops to transform texture, not just as pulse and punctuation. He tastefully supports Tim Harries’ bass study on the brooding opener “Nepenthe” with muted brushwork, but squalls over the drum’n’bassy “Black Wing” and the furious “Mono Mouth”. But for every tumultuous workout like the metallic “Gwig9”, there’s a delicate exercise in taste like the Bill Frisell-ish “Copper Field”, where the basslines and time signatures extend, droop and fold like a Dali watch. A lot of electronically-enhanced music can sound arid, but this is so evocative, it’s like the soundtrack to an imaginary film. Spin Marvel is a challenging piece of work. You’ll either never get through it or play it all day. Highly recommended, particularly to those wondering what technology can do for instead of to music.