A Rave on the Silk Road: Dance Music Icon Banco de Gaia’s Guided Tour of Electronica’s Eclectic Outlands
release: 02/08/11
Persian strings and prog rock. Tibetan songs and ecstatic house. Welcome to the strange, wonderful world of DJ/remixer/dance music maestro Banco de Gaia (aka Toby Marks) whose work sprang from the hopeful exuberance of British house, the joys of sampling, and the advent of global music.

Now, new listeners unfamiliar with this funky founding father of eclectic electronica can savor nearly two decades of hits, rarities, and remixes on Songs From the Silk Road (Disco Gecko; February 08, 2011). An intro to the vibrant cross-pollination of house and world music, tracks shift from hard-hitting to playful, pulsing to ambient, all guided by a strong, omnivorous ear for powerful beats and delicate filigrees of sound.

Pensive modal harmonies (“Farewell Ferengistan”—named for an obscure Central Asian term for Europeans) alternate with hand drum-heavy dub grooves (“Amber”). Gentle digital pops and glitches (“Big Men Cry”) give way to driving rhythms, stirring vocals, and glittering keyboards (“Last Train to Lhasa”).

But back in the 80s, guitarist and trumpet player Marks hated drum machines. He loved prog rock, experimental jazz, classical, anything—just not synth pop. “But then house happened and changed everything. It opened up a whole new world for me, and I discovered this new machine-made way of making music,” Marks explains. “Combined with the new technology of sampling, I could suddenly have these big Pink Floyd-esque ideas that I could never have executed otherwise.”

But British house was more than a club craze, Marks recalls, and more than a cool new style of music. It was a scene that picked up where the seekers of ’69 left off, exuding a vibe of positivity and optimism in the social and political doldrums of ‘80s Britain. People talked of love, community, and the possibilities of living together in new, humane ways. They went to raves and, quite literally, embraced strangers.

 Musically, this openness meant including a world of musics that were once beyond the pale of pop into dance tracks. Other cultures began sneaking into remixes, even of mainstream rap. “In ‘87, Coldcut remixed ‘Paid in Full’ by Eric B. & Rakim and featured a sample of Ofra Haza,” Marks remembers. “It was straight American hip hop with Israeli vocals, and that really inspired me. I was excited to hear someone combining elements that way outside of jazz and experimental classical music.”