Money Mark

July 11 - July 18, 1 9 9 6 [Off the Record]

*** Money Mark

MARK'S KEYBOARD REPAIR

(Mo' Wax/ffrr)

Taking time off from his day job as the fourth Beastie Boy, keyman Money Mark has been hanging down in the basement -- surrounded by his well-worn and strictly analog Moog, Fender Rhodes, D6 Clavinet, Hammond organ, and even an old yard-sale guitar -- setting new standards for the art of noodling. Keyboard Repair is a low-fi feast of hot licks that conjures Herbie Hancock, Bernie Worrell, Billy Preston, Augustus Pablo, and Gil Scott-Heron in an ultra-loose swirl that includes '60s breeze pop and acid rock, '70s porn funk and R&B, Santana's Latin groove, art rock, ska, Beasties' hip-hop, and enough action-packed instrumentals to rewrite the theme songs of every cheesy TV detective show that ever aired. Although Keyboard Repair can be sloppy, coarse, and discursive, it's this same homemade quality that makes the album more than the sum of its two-minute parts. Like everything having to do with the Beasties -- including the similarly minded groove-based indie rock of Luscious Jackson -- Money Mark's opus is a joy because of its freewheeling take on genre-hopping and because it lives and breathes with the sense it was a shitload of fun to make.

-- Roni Sarig