Blu Mar Ten is made up of founding members Leo Wyndham and Chris Marigold, with new addition Michael Tognarelli.
Chris & Leo met though a mutual friend in 1995. They clicked immediately and started to write music. Both have a musical past. Leo had written around 200 hardcore and house tunes over the previous few years, while Chris had been DJ-ing on pirate radio and at raves.
1995 was an incredibly exciting time for music, particularly drum & bass with... Read more
Blu Mar Ten is made up of founding members Leo Wyndham and Chris Marigold, with new addition Michael Tognarelli.
Chris & Leo met though a mutual friend in 1995. They clicked immediately and started to write music. Both have a musical past. Leo had written around 200 hardcore and house tunes over the previous few years, while Chris had been DJ-ing on pirate radio and at raves.
1995 was an incredibly exciting time for music, particularly drum & bass with the rise of Fabio and Bukems Speed and Goldies Metalheadz. The days were spent writing all day in the studio then nights spent going on pilgrimages to Hoxton Square and the West End to hear the professionals at work.
The first track to be released was The Fountain / Lunar in Feb 1997 on the now defunct Way Out Records. The track received acclaim across the board appearing on numerous big name compilations and was named by Fabio as his tune of the year. This was closely followed by the duos remix of Erykah Badus classic On & On for MCA, which travelled into the mainstream top 10. On the heels of these releases Blu Mar Ten were offered a long-term deal by LTJ Bukems Good Looking Records, which was eagerly taken up. This partnership saw a long chain of releases on the label including features on the Logical Progression, Earth and Progression Sessions LPs, tracks on Good Lookings partner labels and a dedicated artist EP and Blu Mar Ten artist compilation LP was also released
Unfortunately, all good things come to an end and in early 2001 Blu Mar Ten and Good Looking parted company, but despite this have remained friends. Since then, Blu Mar Ten has blossomed into a variety of musical styles. Taking a step back from drum & bass, they have produced breaks for Rennie Pilgrems TCR and Danny Macmillans In-flight labels, 2 step garage for Lime, banging house for Guidance recordings and left field downbeat for the Big Chill and Naked Music to name but a few. They have also taken on remix duties for Erykah Badu again, Terry Lee Brown Junior, Jakatta, The Ananda Project and Annie Lennox.
Casting their net wider in this way has won Blu Mar Ten recognition from a diverse set of DJs such as Tom 'The Jedi' Middleton, Felix da Housecat, Ben Watt, Carl Cox, Lee Burridge, Erol Alkan, Howie B and Mary Anne Hobbs.
September 2003 saw the long overdue release of the first proper Blu Mar Ten album, The Six Million Names of God on Exceptional Records. The LP represents work from 1997 through to 2003 and focuses more on the downbeat side of the duo than the dance floor. Featuring collaborations with Blame (720 Recordings / Charged), Nor Elle (Plastic City) and Fink (Ninjatune), the album is packed with layer upon layer of lush sounds and surprising interludes.
In 2004 Chris & Leo were joined by Michael who has known Chris since 1993. The pair had met in Manchester where, as a teenager, Michael had been working in Eastern Bloc and Spin Inn record shops alongside Marcus Intalex and Sappo. Michael joined the duo bringing an emphasis on harder beats and a more driving sound, and continues to produce darker drum & bass on his own.
2006 is a busy year for Blu Mar Ten. A return to their drum & bass roots sees a string of 12" smashers in the pipeline on labels as diverse as Nookie's 'Phuzion Records', Friction's 'Shogun Audio', John B's 'Tangent Recordings', the mighty 'Renegade Hardware', Subject 13's 'Vibez Recordings' and Doc Scott's legendary '31 Records', with Dj support across the scene to match. Amongst these tunes is the now mythical 'Shadowboxing Remix'. Originally made as a one-off just to DJ out, the hype surrounding this rework of Doc Scott's classic has created a splash in the D&B community with a previously unexpected release now slated.
This year also sees the arrival of the eagerly anticipated new album which promises to retain the lushness of previous work while adopting a much more direct approach in it's sound. Show less
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