MARLON D

Love is Key

Jellybean

Unless living in a desert island for quite some time now, Marlon D’s name should ring a bell for most of you here. Responsible for giving birth to memorable tracks such as Maxine Iniss’s ’I Appreciate’ and Jaque’s cover version of Whitney Houston’s classic ‘Love Will Save The Day’, not to mention various works on Ricanstruction and his own label (Underground Collective), this upcoming NYC producer has progressively shaped his own touch. Quite reminiscent of the so called Jersey Sound as championed by Tony Humphries back at the beginning of the 90’s, if not Kerri Chandler, as brilliantly demonstrated on the booming ‘Affection’ featuring J.R. Morisson which we’ve had as our Single of The Week a few months ago. Our guy no doubt knows how to come up with grooves that rock the floor but also has a true sense of melody, as further shown on the vibrant ‘Lover Extraordinaire’ and the aerial ‘Better As Friends’ both sung by Caroline Peppers over lush keys. Not to mention the ultra sensuous Afro Caribbean ‘Tropical Love’ whereas he displays a (fine) taster of his Latin roots and the jazzyphonkatmospheric ‘Here To Stay’  Other tracks worth the listen incl. the deep and fascinating ‘Digital Love’ combining an ultra soulful vocal interpretation by Stephanie Renee over an insane bassline, those (usual) sheer keys and a jazzy sax part to be added to the in yer face ‘I’m A Believer’ on some (other) killing groove with the potential to become a smash. The two remaining pieces displaying a more progressive side of Mr D.  Quite a nice shot indeed. MFSB