Marco Benevento – Houdini

Marco Benevento is moving into new territory. After more than 15 years on Royal Potato Family, the New York keyboardist is debuting on Big Crown Records with Glera, a full-length due July 24. It’s his ninth solo studio album, and by the sound of the preview single “Houdini”, the label switch comes with a shift in direction: this is dancefloor-minded, groove-forward music with jazz bones and a hip-hop pulse.

“Houdini” opens with forceful drums and a locked-in piano motif that doesn’t let up. The production owes something to the Madlib school: keys and beat in lockstep, not much wasted space. Which makes sense given Benevento’s recent work alongside Madlib and Freddie Gibbs. What catches my ear is the distant harmony sitting just under the main groove, a recurring production signature of Benevento’s that usually adds warmth; here it adds a little unease instead, which suits the track’s name.

Glera began three years ago as an intuitive writing exercise, inspired by Italian film scores. It evolved from those sketches into something more expansive, with contributors including Leon Michels, Dave Guy, Homer Steinweiss, Nick Movshon, harpist Elizabeth Steiner, ambient artist Dream Crease, and vocalists Chiara Civello, Marianne Mirage and Molly Lewis. The press materials promise jazz improvisation alongside reggae pocket, orchestral elements, and psych-pop atmosphere. “Houdini”, at least, keeps the focus tighter than that description suggests.

Benevento on joining Big Crown: “To have my own music fit into the mix feels kinda unreal”. For a keyboardist who has spent a quarter-century reinventing his approach with each record, the enthusiasm reads as genuine. The piano player who once built an audience mining the Grateful Dead catalogue with Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, and who put out a McCartney-inflected psych-pop album four years ago, is now making something that DJs might actually spin. I wasn’t expecting the pivot to land this cleanly, and that’s reason enough to have it here.

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Tracklist:

1. Frizzante
2. Turandot feat. Marianne Mirage
3. Big Top
4. Houdini
5. Zio Tony feat. Molly Lewis
6. I Can’t Control This Bliss feat. Dream Crease
7. Crema
8. Miss Neptune feat. Elizabeth Steiner
9. Sorgini feat. Dave Guy
10. Sprezzatura
11. Hip Then
12. Catoni feat. 13th Ward Social Club
13. Quattro Passi feat. Chiara Civello
14. Over Now

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