Mo’ Wax — Where Are They Now: Marden Hill (1993)
Mo’ Wax was a record label started by James Lavelle in 1992, which closed about ten years later. Initially they released 12" singles and licensed a compilation from Japan of Japanese Hip Hop, until 1994 when they began releasing albums of their artists original work. While some of these artists such as DJ Shadow, DJ Krush, and Money Mark continued releasing music after Mo’ Wax closed, others have seemingly disappeared from the music scene. In this series I will look at each artist on Mo’ Wax and try to find out where are they now…
Mo’ Wax’s first release of 1993 wasn’t from a new band, but an old one. Marden Hill was formed by Mark Daniels, taking the name from his childhood home Marden Hill House which has a history of well known artists visiting, including musicians Jimi Hedrix, and Mick Jagger, as well as poet Sylvia Plath. Marden Hill the band released their debut single Curtain in 1986, with their album Cadaquéz following in 1988, both on the British label Él.
Cadaquéz was described by All Music as sounding like “a wild assortment of ’60s incidental soundtrack music thrown into a stew, then played back again on somewhat more modern equipment”. The album was later reissued in 2002 and 2006, with All Music commenting that the band were ahead of their time, with Cadaquéz preceding the “ lounge/jazz/Morricone/surf blends” which later came into fashion.
The album was followed by a handful of singles before the second Marden Hill album Sixty Minute Man was released on May 26 1993, exclusively in Japan. The album featured Come On which was also released as a 12" by Mo’ Wax in the UK at the beginning of 1993, with the 12" featured several different mixes of its title track.
Mo’ Wax founder James Lavelle teamed with Tim Goldsworthy to create their own remix, Come On (2010 Version), credited to Men From U.N.K.L.E. Featuring Marden Hill, with Lavelle and Goldsworthy known as Men From U.N.K.L.E. at the time prior to shortening their name to UNKLE. This remix was only released in Japan on the Mo Groove Vol. 1 compilation of Mo’ Wax tracks released in July 1993.
1994 saw Marden Hill release their final album Blown Away, a collection of remixed songs from Sixty Minute Man collected for a UK release by On Delancey Street. The album was succeeded by several EPs which sold fairly well, but they couldn’t quite crack the UK Singles Charts, all hanging outside the Top 100, with Blow EP reaching #145, Up In Smoke #194, and Sugarplums/Bardot reaching #161. Each fell back outside the Top 200 after one week, and none of the bands albums charted in the UK, though one member of the band heard a rumour they had charted in Australia in 1995, though it remains unconfirmed.
Following the release of Blown Away, Marden Hill returned to the studio to record a new album, and signed it to Dave Stewart’s Anxious Records. But their were problems at the label and the deal fell apart, with Marden Hill leaving the album unreleased and “going their seperate ways”.
Blown Away was followed by two final compilations, first Hijacked was released in the US by Stepping Stone Recordings in 1996 which features a similar, though extended, tracklist to Blown Away. This was because the people at Stepping Stone felt Blown Away hadn’t been promoted properly and according to Billboard Marden Hill adjusted the track order and added new songs for Hijacked. New mixes of many of the songs were also created so as to remove uncleared samples which had appeared on Blown Away.
Hijacked was due for a release in December 1996 according to Billboard, and Stepping Stone organised a cross-promotional campaign with BC Ethic Clothing and Marden Hill, where members of the band appeared in advertisements for the clothing and Marden Hill’s music was played in clothing stores. A CD Sampler was released featuring one of the advertisements on its cover, with the advertisement also featuring on page 93 of Spin Magazine’s November 1996 issue.
As part of the album launch Marden Hill were scheduled to make their first appearance in the US as part of a promotional tour at the beginning of 1997, though reportedly bandleader Mark Daniels was too shy to tour and turned down the opportunity. Music Week called Hijacked “Album of the week by a mile, a masterpiece that leaves no room for fillers.” The Face exclaimed, “Marden Hill now explore more fully their modern slightly eerie jazzy directions. One day all airports will sound this good!” And in April 1997 the album continued earning praise, appearing at #20 in CMJ New Music Monthly’s Dance Top 25.
In 1998 Cherry Red, the owners of Él Records who had released Marden Hill’s debut Cadaquéz ten years earlier, released Lost Weekend in the UK. Featuring songs from Cadaquéz and Sixty Minute Man, it’s more of a Best Of type of compilation than the others. Cherry Red described Lost Weekend as “an album which combines material recorded over their unique 10 year career. It’s an original mix of musical styles that are eccentric, but impeccably behaved.” Muzik gave the album 4/5 stars and called it a “Trippy mix of Nineties ’ psychedelia with erotic Seventies’ undertones.” The review concludes that Marden Hill had “come up with true music hall entertainment, yet made it sound unmistakably 1998.”
Marden Hill had stopped releasing music by this point, but Mark Daniels and bandmate Christopher Bernard re-teamed as 45 Dip for 2000’s The Acid Lounge, with Marden Hill’s Pete Moss also appearing on one track. These tracks were later collected with some Marden Hill and other recordings with Defoe, and Sugarman, as part of an anthology focusing on Mark Daniels released in 2015.
Following the Anthology release, Daniels devoted himself to a gallery set up at Marden Hill House, DANAD Design, which has held exhibitions curated by Daniels featuring Mo’ Wax’s Ian “Swifty” Swift, Jamie Reid, and a collection of work from the 2000AD magazine. But in 2020 he returned to music with a new project D.Foe, releasing La Belle Bouche EP on Ramrock Red Records in August.
In 2021 more news arrived when Ramrock Red announced Casino Muse, a new old album from Marden Hill which had been thought lost. The album had been intended as a follow up to Blown Away but was shelved, only to be later found by Mark Daniels in his basement. After 25 years Casino Muse is now scheduled to see release at the end of April 2021.
UPDATE 8 April 2021: I have made some formatting adjustments and added information for new releases in 2020 and 2021. Read a new interview about the lost Casino Muse album below:
