Released
1997
Label
mammoth
records
Reviewed by
Kim Alexander
Visit
Banco de Gaia
Last Edit/Update
03 January, 1999
Banco
de Gaia
Big Men Cry
Banco de Gaia is Toby Marks
1. Drippy
2. Celestine
3. Drunk As A Monk
4. Big Men Cry
5. Gates Does Windows
6. One Billion Miles Out
7. Starstation Earth
Big Men Cry is a rich and
highly diverse release in terms of mastering, programming and sounds respectively.
A few tracks bring out futuristic and quite exotic mental images as in Starstation
Earth, an ambient experimental work with deep bass drones and reverberating effects
that move below key loops and symphonic harmony. Drunk As A Monk is yet another
experimental track with chanting, effects that increase in timbre to apex with a marchlike
beat of drums. Villean Pipes (Aidan O'Brien), bring the track down in pace
and up in aural awareness with more drum and bass. This could be Scorn meets The
Orb I think! Very tasty track!
One can hear the Eastern influences in Celestine, and
saxophones by Dick Parry, Soprano Sax by Matt Jenkins, a male voice calls to
stars over an upheaval of electronica then tames down into keys and drums where the Saxs
take their turn and enhance this slower section of the track with mellower percussion and
bass....simply beautiful. The release is not without sounds of nature. Gates
Does Windows (what a great title eh?), is an interesting track starting off with a man
whistling, birds chirping and transform into increasing rumbling with spindly whispering
sounds of what could be energy moving through circuits if one could hear it. The
piece moves into a wonderful ambient orchestral voice eerily expressing the electro-arch
angel of impending Y2K doom! Yikes! Astounding track. Has Gates heard
this yet?
Toby Marks has a number of releases out over the years.
If you haven't heard any of his work, pick up a disk or two. His time spent
travelling certainly shows up in his music. His sense of universal harmony is
another quality that is striking in his compositions and seems to give him the ability to
forge out more unique work on a regular basis.
