Between the Needles and Nightfall
Marco Benevento
Between the Needles and Nightfall
Royal Potato Family
When it comes to music, neurological studies have revealed something fascinating – that listening to music actually makes you smarter. In MRIs it’s been revealed that neurons and synapses in several disparate regions of the brain light up in the brain, simultaneously. These tests in a rather roundabout way have essentially confirmed something that humans intuitively and instinctively known for ages – music creates and evokes powerful associations within us. Indeed, we all just know that there are songs which remind us of certain people, places, events, even emotions, moods and thoughts we had at a particular period of time. Although I don’t have the scientific background to prove it to the entire world, I’m convinced that to create art is to be truly human; that to create art is to as much our evolutionary purpose as it is to survive and procreate. . . But why the scientific/metaphysical bent, dear reader? To be honest, in my first few plays of the Brooklyn-based pianist, Marco Benevento’s latest effort, Between the Needles and Nightfall, I was immediately reminded of the Esperanto Café on Macdougal Street, an old haunt of my idealistic, ridiculous early twenties. Walking in the West Village to catch a show at Le Poisson Rouge the other day, I discovered that the place had recently closed. Like any other hangout, I eventually grew out of it and stopped going – but like an old lover, the Esperanto had a small spot reserved in my heart.
As a young, laughably poor artist, I had befriended a young Australian-Scotchman painter who would in many ways be the perfect embodiment of the Whiskey Dregs. His parties – well they were full out of out of control debauchery and excess that will leave a man with a lifetime of stories to tell (which I’ll leave for another time). Much like most of the music John used to play while working behind the counter, Benevento’s latest is a beautiful, psychedelic, jazzed out trip of an album which brought to my mind diverse and comparable sounds, as the songs are primarily built around piano, drums, organ, bass and amazing array of delay and effect pedals. Benevento’s music defies easy categorization. Is it pop music, in the old school sense? Well yeah, you can say that. Is it indie rock? You can say that too. Is it jazz? Yeah, you can say that as well. Like any great experimental music, this is the sort of music that bridges the gaps between several different genres and does so seamlessly. At moments, such as “Greenpoint,” there are times when the album reminded me of Radiohead’s Amnesiac – piano, bass and drums bouncing around electronic boops, blips and blasts in any icy musical landscape. “Between the Needles” starts with a sparse arrangement before building up steam, swells and then fades out. A Benevento composition such as “You Know I’m No Good” displays the same joyously playful charm of a classic Thelonious Monk tune, “Ruby, My Dear ,” on Monk’s Solo Monk. “RISD” seems to borrow the bass line from Spoon’s “Don’t You Evah” and adds some spaced-out dub to the proceedings. “It Came From You,” has a danceable, techno edge to it full of processed 808 drumbeats and warped keyboards.
Unlike modern pop music which requires fickle hearts, short attention spans and is perfect for our instant gratification and throwaway world, Between the Needles and Nightfall requires multiple listens to truly understand the nuances and the hidden little moments that inattentive music “fans” would automatically miss. But it’s also experimental enough to be challenging and exciting for those who expect and demand something avant garde while maintaining a pop sensibility – a rare thing, indeed. Benevento is touring to support the album, including a much anticipated show at the Bowery Ballroom this Saturday.
Release Date May 11, 2010
Track Listing
1. Greenpoint
2. Between the Needles
3. Two of You
4. Numbers
5. It Came From You
6. Ila Frost
7. RISD
8. You Know I’m No Good
9. Music is Still Secret
10. Wolf Trap
11. Snow Lake
