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about
New York based composer/pianist Nick Marks kicks off 2024 from where he left off in 2023: with his first single of 2024, “BACK TO LIFE”, which will be part of a slate of new releases that will culminate in the launch of two EP’s, Cinematic Chromatics Vol. II and Vol. III. Throughout 2023, Marks gained widespread attention and acclaim for Cinematic Chromatics Vol. I, which “seamlessly fuses elements of jazz, neo-soul, and electronica into a mesmerizing symphony that defies conventions.”
With Back To Life, Marks takes listeners into a different place within his sonic universe. Traversing boundaries into the neo-soul/hip-hop worlds while fusing flavours of jazz, lo-fi beats and cinematic elements, Marks further cements his reputation for defying genre, joining the dots between different musical landscapes. In doing so, he marries two disparate paradigms of his artistry: that of the concert music/film scoring world, and the underground scenes in which jazz, hip-hop, neo-soul and electronica cross-pollinate.
Back To Life comfortably sits at the intersection of neo-soul, hip-hop/rap, trap and lo-fi jazzy beats, all with a cinematic aesthetic: imagine Redman, J Cole and Anderson. Paak combining with the spirit of J Dilla, Tribe Called Quest and Funkadelic to create a lo-fi jazzy beat inspired track. This is the first vocal collaboration track in the Cinematic Chromatics series, featuring MC/Rapper and drummer extraordinaire Doron Lev. Lev wrote the lyrics, raps, and performs drums on the track (in fact, Lev is the drummer on all tracks in Cinematic Chromatics Trilogy).
Marks composed all elements of the track, performed, recorded and produced all the keyboard and synthesizer elements (as well as sings on vocoder), while Lev wrote and performed the lyrics, drums/beat programming, and with horns from Andrew Gould and Dave Levy.
lyrics
(Music by Nick Marks, Lyrics by Doron Lev)
Hey, alright
Tell me what to do to bring you back to life
Hey, alright
I’ve been waitin' baby
Bring you back to life
Hey, alright
Tell me what to do to bring you back to life
I’m a weirdo (yep)
I’m aware of it
More zeroes
Reload the experiment
No heroes (nah)
Just me, y’all
Marks on the keyboard
Art for the people
Fresh produce germinate the planet
New strains junction
Jumpin’ on the 2 train
Always gettin' into something
Yeah you know I gotta few things
If the view don’t change
Put the picture in a new frame
Check the brush stroke
Goin' for the gusto
Crush with a plush tone (uh)
That’s gun smoke
One toke
Have you on the floor like a sunstroke
Running through the jungle
Cookin' up the gumbo
They grillin'
I see it
They wantin' my recipe
Beat and the melody (yep)
And the rest is me?
No second guessing these
extra terrestrial messages
Somebody sendin' me
They tellin me
They tellin me
I’m sorta loco
Cobra choke hold
On the track more than so so (oh no)
Forget the status quo
Bout to take you back home
In that zone
Takin' out the trash form on another plateau
Platform
Ask why they asked for him
Coz Doron known to crash boards
In the last quarter
That’s Florida
Strike chords with mic lords in psych wards
Can’t just shine
Need to be lit from the right source
Coz I could stand in the arctic circle
Hold my breath 'til my carcus purple
Come back the sharpest pupil
If everything go right
And they applaud for the raw that I sling on mics
Raw bars?
Raw bars
Everything on ice
I get old ladies excited
Like it’s bingo night
Bargaining chips
Never pay for the thing whole price
In an octopus garden
It’s that Ringo life
I’m Bruce Lee with nunchucks
Playing ping pong nice
Post covid killing everything on-site
It’s that prime grade A
And you know it’s tailor made
Comin' to save the day quick
Like Ayla Rae
Another pay to play
Paper chase, made to case
Two kings, one ace, crazy 8s
Boom
Like some 808s radiate
In a perpetual state of grace
Deliverin' since '88
C'mon
Listen to this coz we made it for ya's
We christening this ship
On this maiden voyage
On this maiden voyage
credits
released February 2, 2024
Nick Marks - Composer, Keyboards, Synths, Producer
Doron Lev - MC/Rapper, Drummer, Beat Programming
Andrew Gould - Alto Sax
Dave Levy - Trumpet
Nick Marks is a New York based artist who takes listeners on "a mesmerizing journey through jazz, electronica, neo-soul, and
cinematic music" (Illustrate Magazine). His debut EP, Cinematic Chromatics Vol. I has been described as “a sonic masterpiece that will leave you craving more" (Earmilk)....more
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