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Marine \ Same Beat [TWI 043 / CD]


Les Disques du Crépuscule presents a unique anthology by artful Brussels garage funk band Marine, fondly remembered for their dazzling debut single Life In Reverse in 1981, and now back with a clutch of brand new studio tracks.

Snapped up instead by chic boutique label Les Disques du Crépuscule, Marine released their infectious debut single Life In Reverse in April 1981, attracting rave reviews in the Belgian and UK press, reaching the giddy heights of #6 on the NME indie chart, and even being invited to record a radio session for John Peel - a world first for a Belgian band.

Soon favourable comparisons were being drawn with The Pop Group, A Certain Ratio, Defunkt, James White and Fire Engines, some pundits even sensing a new Haircut 100. 'We're not a fashion band,' insisted Marc in UK rock weekly Sounds, 'and it’s not really dance music. But all the same I’m glad people dance to it.'

Alas, artistic differences caused the fast-rising group to part ways in a London studio, when half the band quit to form pop-funk sophisticates Allez Allez. With new Marines on board, Marc and bassist Paul Delnoy went on to release two further singles (How To Keep Cool and Same Beat), gigged extensively around France and the Low Countries, and played a headline show at The Venue in London. 'Fine, disciplined and gleeful rhythm workers,' enthused Chris Bohn in NME. 'A happy, contagiously clean aural equivalent to a Serge Clerc cartoon.'

Alas by the summer of 1982 Marine were all washed up, with Marc going on direct films and documentaries as Marco Laguna. Four decades later, finally heeding desperate pleas from Crepuscule that his sensational first band never cut an album, Marc has written and recorded another 6 remarkably authentic sounding Marine songs with help from like-minded friends in Brussels and Paris, once more drawing on a heady mix of supercool funkabilly, jazz and soundtrack influences.

'It was an incredibly strange experience to revisit my past,' says Marc, 'but definitely fun. I’m glad, and I’m proud!'

The cover art is by LDDC art director Benoît Hennebert and based on the Same Beat single sleeve from 1982. The vinyl edition of TWI 143 is limited to 500 copies pressed on blue vinyl and includes a digital link. All tracks are newly remastered in 2023. VINYL AND CD AVAILABLE FEBRUARY 2024.


Vinyl tracklist:

A1. Life In Reverse
A2. Animal In My Head
A3. Same Beat
A4. How To Keep Cool
A5. Marenas Bop
A6. A Proposito dei Napoli
B1. Le Glissement Progressif du Plaisir
B2. Jean-Luc Godard
B3. Stretto Bongo
B4. Funkabilly
B5. Born to Love

CD + digital tracklist:

1. Life In Reverse
2. Animal In My Head
3. Same Beat
4. How To Keep Cool
5. Marenas Bop
6. Scrub
7. A Proposito dei Napoli
8. Le Glissement Progressif du Plaisir
9. Jean-Luc Godard
10. Stretto Bongo
11. Funkabilly
12. Born to Love
13. I'm Glad, I'm Free
14. Remember Caribou
15. Kiss My Knee
16. Life In Reverse (original mix)
17. Dim the Light


Available on vinyl, CD and digital (MP3 or FLAC). Mailorder copies ordered direct from LDDC are slipcased. To order any format please first select correct shipping option (UK, Europe or Rest of World) and then click on Add To Cart button below the cover image. Digital copies are supplied to customers via link sent by email.

Or, you can order with the option of tracked shipping from our friends at Burning Shed (click here to order)

Same Beat [TWI 043]
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Reviews:

"To call Marine a funk group would be but half the story. Blending the articulate, rhythmic groove of the JBs with the frenetic speed of punk, the band helmed passionate, intense music. With untouchable tracks like Live In Reverse, Animal In My Head and Same Beat this is a vital collection" (The Big Takeover, 09/2004)

"Shake your head in bewilderment that Marine didn't become all-conquering" (Whisperin' & Hollerin', 10/2004)

"Life In Reverse shuffles along in a grand manner and takes funk another step forward, with the bold Captain Beefheart stopping in to say hello, as Talking Heads get listened to and the reference becomes redundant as Marine do their thing. Their record could very well funk your but off, and I can't think of a better way to go" (Hot Press, 4/1981)

"Thirty years of music backwards into four minutes of frantic Euro super-vision would have to sound something like Marine. A panicking frantic race, drums fly from one speaker to the next, horns go in and out of the mix like there's no tomorrow. Play it when you feel mad, you can't sit down, and you don't know why" (NME, 4/1981)

"Life In Reverse is a jangled mass of funk, powered and obsessive, yelling for an uneasy mental dance. The saxophone wails with a lunatic attractiveness, and voices thud in out and of the broken fusion of eclectic modernism" (Sounds, 6/1981)