Some folk just exude music as if it’s pouring out of their skin. Their eyes spark up when they chat about beats. They can’t be stopped when they’re in full flow about the topic, or talk about a song without singing at least a bar of the lyrics. We all know these people. Chances are, you are one yourself. Sitting in a Hackney studio one Friday afternoon late 2021, DJ Mag is under no illusion that M-Beat certainly is one too.
“How the hell can anyone listen to music and not move around?” he shouts/laughs over a booming new fusion of drill, jungle and grime. He’s enthusiastic to the point of fizzing over. Any track he discusses will almost inevitably involve him breaking into a little bar or two or a quick drum rhythm on the studio desk. When he plays a new beat, he pushes the studio chair to its limit, rocking back and forth with a walloping grin on his face. Especially when he’s playing his own new material. The beats themselves are so fresh, he’s not quite ready for us to reveal what they are yet, but the man himself requires no introduction whatsoever.
Marlon M-Beat is one of jungle’s earliest breakthrough artists, whose records were pivotal during the early hardcore/jungle crossover era between ’91-’93. He was responsible for introducing the mainstream to the sound, with a string of the genre’s first big crossover anthems, such as ‘Sweet Love’ and ‘Incredible’, a track featuring General Levy that’s revered and sung along to with as much gusto in 2021 as there was when it was released in 1994. He’s also the only jungle pioneer to have performed on Top Of The Pops (no less than four times), and was the only jungle artist to score three consecutive top 20 UK hits in the ’90s. Besides Shy FX and his track ‘Original Nuttah’, no other producer has come close to presenting true jungle culture to the mass pop market.
Yet for all his influence, and his passion for music that runs ridiculously deep, Marlon hasn’t released an official beat since 1996. Aged no older than 21, he left the scene homeless and penniless.