Marco Benevento - Escape Horse (7") - Album Review

By: Tim Baker

Holy shit.

Those drums.

That buzzy bass that makes me make my orgasm face.

The way Escape Horse starts off I was sure it was gonna be an Audioslave track. I expected the fleeting joy of the drum/bass/cum face combo to eventually be destroyed by derivative song writing about overcoming some unseen foe or some shit.

And then...

That piano drops. MuthaFuckin Marco Benevento, that dreamy eyed son of a bitch kicks in and gets my feet tapping, my soul singing and my smile smiling. The title track of Marco's Escape Horse 7" is aggressively melodic, after starting off like a ass kicking waiting to happen it ventures off into delicious groove that's swells and wraps around its self creating warmth and nourishment for all woodland creatures* before venturing off to looser and slightly sluttier ivory work. It is this foray into the deep end** that really makes Escape Horse something special, showing off the technical genius wrapped in a body condom of pop sensibility that is Marco Benevento. When we finally drop out to the stripped down piano and rumbling bass of Phish's Mike Gordon, letting us know it’s over, our hair is mussed (yeah mussed) and our cherry is gone.

*Hippies

**Yes Code

Then the whole fucking vibe switches on a fucker. Fireworks comes in like an avant garde hip hop track before evolving into a delightful walk in the park. A walk drenched in post-jazz stylings that in a weird way makes me think how awesome it would be to be Tom Hanks.

I fucking love Tom Hanks.

I love this 7".

And I love Marco Benevento.