Ahead of the release of Spin Marvel’s latest, so far unreleased, album Infolding in February, their first for RareNoise, here’s a little listening from their earlier work

(From The Reluctantly Politicised Mr James)

Spin Marvel are Loose Tubes drummer Martin France’s band with a ‘guesting’ Nils Petter Molvær joining France’s co-founding members electronicist Terje Evensen and his Puul bandmate bassist Tim Harries plus relative newcomer drummer/mixer Emre Ramazanoglu coming on board on the new record.

Spin Marvel made their eponymous debut as a four piece – France, Evensen, Harries and guitarist John Parricelli – for Babel, an album released quietly in 2006. But it would take four years and a new label, this time Edition Records, for a second album Spin Marvel 2, better known by its subtitle ‘The Reluctantly Politicised Mr James’, to appear and the momentum to gradually build, partly through the addition of influential futurejazz trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær coming on board and partly via the additional frisson at selected live shows involving guest spots for Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones.

Spin Marvel sound like no one else and it’s interesting that they manage to combine so many elements: prog-jazz, futurejazz, jazztronica, and organic grooves that leave the door wide open for improvisation.

Their impact live is considerable too: it's not some sort of floaty souffle of a sound that some electronica-laden hybrids produce (Evensen is so adept at manipulating Ableton Live software effects in real-time). And above all else drummer Martin France’s character as a player is heard in the band better than anywhere else.