Mark’s Keyboard Repair - Money Mark (LP)
Where: Rarekind Records, Brighton
Why: Money Mark dropped onto my desk as a second hand from my dad, who had bought the CD from a charity shop on the strength of its artwork and title. It, alongside ‘Push The Button’, Mark Ramos-Nishita’s second album, had sat on my shelf underplayed, save the “should have been a Number 1” ’Tomorrow Will Be Like Today’ from his second LP.
Digging through my favourite £3 reductions box in Brighton’s Rarekind Records, I was met buy the sturdy Rothko-esqe album art of ‘Mark’s Keyboard Repair’; a hefty gatefold LP, textured like soft cardboard. The record store’s reason for reduction was the result of “Marks”. As the record seemed fine to me, I like to joke that it is possibly Money Mark’s copy, and that his his relative obscurity had relegated him to reductions bin.
I sure got my money’s worth from this album: 20 tracks of lo-fi, jazzy demos, supposedly recorded using equipment passing through Mark’s actual Keyboard Repair shop. The majority of track are instrumental, but the best tracks are sketched out love songs, or make clever use of samples (especially on my favourite track ‘Insects Are All Around Us’. The album truly sketches out the shape of Money Mark’s second LP, ‘Push The Button’, which is delivered with a much more polished sheen. Most likely through his continued work with the Beastie Boys, Mark collaborated with the Dust Brothers and later contributing the loungey hook on Beck’s ‘Where It’s At’. Although Mark remains relatively unknown, his back catalog deserves attention, “Marks” or otherwise.
How Much: £3
Best Tracks: Insects Are All Around Us, Got My Hand In Your Head