Banco de Gaia

by John Bush   Inspired to enter the field of electronic music by Britains acid house explosion of the late 80s, Toby Marks took quite a different spin on electronica with his recordings as Banco de Gaia, introducing elements of Eastern and Arabic music, sampling similarly exotic sources, and tying the whole to ambient-dub rhythms. Marks began releasing cassette-only albums in the early 90s, distributed through a network of clubs and artists known as Planet Dog. When Planet Dog became a record label as well (later the home of Eat Static and Timeshard), Banco de Gaia debuted on disc with the Desert Wind EP, released in November 1993. Early the following year, Marks released his first album, Maya. For 1995s Last Train to Lhasa, Marks concerned himself with the plight of occupied Tibet. The following year brought a rare concert recording, Live at Glastonbury, with Big Men Cry appearing in 1997, followed by The Magical Sounds of Banco de Gaia two years later. In late 2000, Marks returned with Igizeh through Six Degrees Records, a label with which he decided to stay for 2004s You Are Here and 2006s Farewell Ferengistan.