Interview: Mark Daniels on Marden Hill’s lost album ‘Casino Muse’
April this year saw the release of a new “lost” album from Marden Hill, an Englsih acid jazz group led by Mark Daniels who had disbanded in the 1990s.
Following their debut album Cadaquéz in 1988, Marden Hill released Sixty Minute Man in Japan, which was then remixed slightly for its UK release as Blown Away in 1994. This was then released in the US as Hijacked, with an altered tracklisting again.
A third album of new material was recorded for Dave Stewart’s Anxious Records, but problems at the label left the album unreleased until now.
Following the rediscovery of the lost album, Casino Muse has been released and Mark Daniels was happy to discuss their history
Marden Hill released their first single in 1986, can you talk about how the band was formed?
The original line up of the band was me, my half-brother Matt Lipsey, Charlie Phillips, Pete Moss and Ian Smith. Charlie, Matt and I were born and grew up in run down Georgian manor house called Marden Hill (obviously where we got our name from). It was an artist community, so we were surrounded by creatively from the very start. Pete Moss and Ian Smith were close friends who came from the nearest town, Hertford.
Charlie left the band after the first album and was replaced by Chris Bemand, a London boy.
The second Marden Hill album was released in Japan in 1993, how did that come about?
Our first album Cadaquéz was released on El Records in 1988 but it became a cult classic in Japan. A Japanese label Mo’ Music (run by Toshi Yajima) released our single Harlem River Drive, then put out an album Sixty Minute Man which was the original name of the band. Mike Alway, the head of El Records made us change our name as Sixty Minute Man’was too “butch” for him! We had called ourselves Sixty Minute Man as it was the title of an old blues song that first used the phrase ‘rock and roll’ — “I’m a sixty-minute man and I’m gonna rock n roll you all night long”
Around the same time, you released Come On on Mo’ Wax. How did you connect with
Mo’ Wax and James Lavelle?
Funny story — Due to our indie cult status in Japan we were asked to record a track for a Japanese compilation album on Trattoria Records called Jazz Jersey (released in 92). Each artist on the album had to reinterpret a jazz standard in a modern style (this was at the very start of the acid jazz genre).
They gave us a £3000 recording budget which was a fortune in those days! We were used to making tracks for a couple of hundred pounds. We recorded an Acid Jazz version of Watermelon Man. We then used some of the remaining money to record the original version of Come On. But we still had a lot of that money burning a hole in our pockets and we didn’t want to give it back to the label.
Around that time, I’d been introduced to Ashley Beedle by a mutual friend of ours, Sid. Ashley was working in Black Market record shop in Soho. He was DJing at the time but wanted to try his hand at remixing. So, as we still had some of the 3K, we paid for some studio time for Ashley to remix Come On. He did a fantastic job and he played it to a very young James Lavelle. I don’t think Mo’ Wax had actually released anything at that time so we knew nothing about the label, but we let him have the track because of his unbridled enthusiasm! I remember Ashley saying “he’s just a kid but I’ve got a good feeling about him. he’s gonna to fly!”
The first time we met James was a few weeks later when he came to our recording studio, he saw a big bag of weed on the mixing desk and said “I think we’ll work very well together!”
I found out years later that we were supposed to keep anything left out of the 3K for ourselves and we didn’t have to spend it all on recording. Good job I didn’t know that at the time as Come On helped start some good music history!
James Lavelle and Tim Goldsworthy remixed Come On under their UNKLE moniker, making it one of the first UNKLE productions released. What did you think of the remix, and whose idea was it to have so many remixes of Come On (there’s four more mixes on the Mo’ Wax 12”)?
Yes, he did keep going back to Come On didn’t he.. Maybe because it was one of the first tracks he had all the parts too? So he could use it to experiment with/ cut his remix teeth on? I thought his Unkle Come On remixes were brilliant. Well ahead of the times. Most labels back then would have thought the mixes much to “out there” but James owned the label and could release whatever mad shit he wanted!
Were there any other plans to work with Mo’ Wax, or was it always just that one single?
James wanted to release the Blown Away album but Ashley had just started his On Delancy Street label and we were always going to go with Ashley. Because he was a great friend, and because we loved his music vision and because he was essentially a sixth member of Marden Hill.
Sixty Minute Man was remixed and released in the UK as Blown Away, why was it remixed?
There’s some confusion here — there were only two original albums Cadaquéz and Blown Away. The others were hybrids for the Japanese and American markets.
Blown Away was released in the USA under the title Hijacked, with an altered tracklist and new mixes again. What did you think of releasing the same album almost three times, was it weird working with the same material for so long?
Not our choice. We were very “laid back” and there was a demand for Marden Hill material that we weren’t keeping up with and a couple of labels took advantage of that. An American label licensed Blown Away and changed the album title to Hijacked. We had to remix a couple of tracks as they had samples on and Americans are very afraid of litigation! We insisted on adding a couple of extra tracks because we were worried that people who had bought Blown Away on import would buy this not knowing it was almost the same album. At least they’d get a couple of new tracks.. It was like labels were trying to put together ‘greatest hits’ albums when there weren’t any hits! cobbled together out of only two albums and four or five singles/ remixes! But out of our control…
It was a vicious circle — people wanted new Marden Hill material but we weren’t making it, in part because we weren’t being paid our royalties from the record companies (not James and Ashley’s fault) and as we didn’t have anyone looking after our business interests we were a soft touch for labels to stitch together hybrid releases and to put us on a good 50 compilation albums without our knowledge or permission..
In the US you also partnered with the clothing company BC Ethic for a cross promotion. How did this come about, and what was that like? Had you been part of large advertising campaigns before?
We didn’t know much about it. On reflection we should have had a manager! We were taken advantage of a lot. We didn’t really know how we were being used in America. I was in a record shop in San Fransisco years later and found 27 US compilation albums with Marden Hill tracks on that we knew nothing about. But then It was partly down to our ignorance — when we were no.1 on US college radio at one point, I thought college radio was just half a dozen stoned students playing their favourite records to each other!!
Marden Hill seemed to earn a lot of praise from the press but never released a third album. We now know that one was recorded (Casino Muse) but was left unreleased. Why was that?
We all individually had other creative things going on in our lives and this was the right time for us to move on. Chris and I were already working on other music projects, Matt was becoming a successful TV director, Pete concentrated on his photography and Ian wanted to travel the world.
Has Casino Muse been remixed or altered at all from the original planned release in the 1990s?
Not one bit. And as we can’t find the multitrack we couldn’t change it if we wanted to. But Ashley is going to record an alternative version of the upcoming single from the album and we may record an acoustic version of it.
Are there any further Marden Hill planned for release?
Never say never…
What’s next for you?
I’ve just finished a new album I’m very happy with under the name ‘D.Foe’ with Rob Clydesdale and Claire Delliere. We had an EP out a couple of months ago on Ramrock called La Belle Bouche. And we’ve been making music for film and TV to pay the bills. No adverts though! I still have some principles! •
Casino Muse is out now on Ramrock Red Records.
Keep up to date with Mark and Marden Hill at mardenhill.com or on Instagram @marden_hill and @d.foe777
This article was originally published in The Shadow Knows Issue #1, July 2021. Buy the fanzine here or read more at our website.
