Banco De Gaia

If you want to know the roots of Banco de Gaia's music, go back to the British hippie space-rock band Hawkwind.

"I saw them on television in 1971," said Toby Marks, the man who is Banco de Gaia, who has just released his sixth album, Igizeh. "I thought they were really weird, and decided it was a lot more interesting than being an accountant."

"It just ends up sounding like Banco de Gaia. Again."

He did finally share a stage with his early heroes in 1997, but their spacey influence has been evident throughout his records. Emerging from England's rave/techno scene, Marks, 36, like fellow global explorers Transglobal Underground and Loop Guru, has always incorporated world music samples into his sound, alongside the beats and ambient textures. Still, the prog rocker within does emerge at times, as on the very Pink Floyd-sounding "Fake It Till You Make It," which, Marks insisted, "was a bit of fun for myself; I wanted to do something retro, and take it to an extreme."

Extremes seem to appeal to Marks; for the track "Gizeh" he made some recordings in Egypt's Great Pyramid. He'd first visited the place ten years before and been "blown away," but this time "it wasn't as big a deal as I expected," he admitted. The addition of air-conditioning to the structure, as a conservation measure causes constant rumbling, so while "the acoustics are stunning, it's lost a lot of the power."

Marks, who began his musical life as a guitarist in rock and folk bands, has tended to use plenty of Middle Eastern samples on his albums, but on Igizeh there's also a pervading Indian influence, with sitars and tablas poking through the mix. He'd long been wary of including Indian music, because it seemed "so obvious. It's been done from the Beatles on. And it didn't occur for any conscious reason, he insisted, "it was simply the material I had to hand."

For the first time, he's also included vocals on a record, with a reworking of "Glove Puppet," which first appeared in instrumental form on his last disc, The Magical Sounds of Banco de Gaia.

"Originally it was a song," Marks explained. "I tried a couple of singers, and it wasn't quite right. So I decided to stick a short instrumental version on my last album. But I decided I wanted to hear it done properly, and I found the right person."

That person was Jennifer Folker, who sings with the Portland, Oregon band Dahlia.

"We opened up for him at a club in Portland. Later I found out, through the club, that he was trying to track me down," Folker recalled. "I was very flattered. I love the way he trusted his gut like that."

The two of them managed to hook up, and Folker flew to England to add her vocal parts, although the sessions didn't always proceed as easily as possible, since "he'd never worked with a vocalist before, and I'm a bit inarticulate about asking for what I want, so there were some frustrating moments."

Eventually the lines of communication were properly established, after which, Folker recalled, things were "smooth and effortless," and she even contributed her soaring talents to another track, "Obsidian."

With Igizeh complete, Marks isn't sure where he'll go next. But one possibility is a stripped-down record of "lots and beats and one synth. But," he laughed, "I can never write that, because I add more and more, and it just ends up sounding like Banco de Gaia. Again."

Banco De Gaia

"It just ends up sounding like Banco de Gaia. Again."

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