Marbles is the legendary 1970 proto punk / dance classic from John McLaughlin’s US debut album 'Deνotion', recorded at the time in which he played on Miles Davis' Bitches Brew and taped the Record Plant session with Jimi Hendrix.

Marbles didn't just deliver jazz rock's most danceable 4/4 beat, played by Band of Gypsies / Electric Flag drummer Buddy Miles. It is also centered with a once-in-a-generation bass line performed by Billy Rich. Larry Young's otherworldly Hammond textures predate a lot of what synthesizers were about to do much later, and the blowtorch energy emanating from John McLaughlin's cranked amp went beyond what most would had dared during the defining era of heavy rock guitar. An apex achievement at the intersection of jazz rock, guitar rock and dance music without parallel, before or since.

Here, a thorough remaster is supplemented by a new and throbbing techno version by Stefan Goldmann. The latter leans heavily on the tune's signature bass line. And what a bass line it is. Multiple musical hints appear throughout this 2025 version – at forms, ideas and sounds which have emerged in dance music since 1970, highlighting how well the central elements of the original composition have held out through disco, post punk, house, techno and anything else that has leaned onto the solid foundation of a 4/4 bass drum in the past fifty five years. Now here we have steady sequencer bass, voice-like synthesis (mirroring McLaughlin's handling of the wah-wah pedal), percussive echoes... And all fit like a glove.

Background: John McLaughlin arrived in New York in 1969 to join Tony Williams' new group Lifetime which also featured Larry Young and eventually Jack Bruce (of Cream). On the second day in town he found himself in the studio with Miles Davis, recording 'In a Silent Way.' His playing would also take center stage in Bitches Brew, Jack Johnson, On The Corner and several other Davis key works of his much beloved first electric era. In between a busy schedule with Lifetime and Davis, McLaughlin also recorded two solo albums in 1970, 'Deνotion' with an all-electric group and ‚'My Goa|’s Bеyоnd' as its acoustic counterpart. By the time he formed his group Mahavishnu Orchestra in 1972, John McLaughlin was firmly established as the most important practitioner of his instrument of his generation within and well beyond the emerging jazz rock / fusion genre, and he has continued to evolve and surprise until today.