DAY OF KNOWING by NIKO MARKS

With �Day Of Knowing� Marks is releasing his debut full length on Planet E. - produced in part with Carl Craig - , the record is undoubtedly one of Marks� most compelling efforts.Niko Marks exists at a musical intersection where Stevie Wonder and electronic music collide. Born in Detroit and raised by a family of musicians and singers, Niko was taught chord progressions by his mother on the piano and learned the rest by ear. He took just one music class along the way. It wasn�t long before Marks� genre-defying path � and ability to sing, write, produce and play � would link him up with the next wave of Detroit techno. In the early 1990s, Marks was working under the same roof as underground luminaries like Juan Atkins, Eddie Fowlkes, �Mad� Mike Banks and Jeff Mills. As Underground Resistance established its iconoclast status, Marks joined collaborative production team Members of the House. On Grand River Avenue in the shadow of Cass Technical High School � Detroit�s de facto producer of legends like Donald Byrd, Dorothy Ashby and Ron Carter � Marks was helping produce the Motor City�s latest musical exports all before he could legally rent a car. �It was almost like a revived Motown for electronic and dance music,� recalls Marks. �The freedom of electronic music or dance music � I began to really get into that. You�re not reduced to a traditional song format. You�re more free.� There�s no denying, however, that the traditional background Marks hails from sets his prolific catalog apart from the pack. Marks manages to bend those chord progressions learned on his mother�s piano to his will today, creating a bevy of soulful techno and house tracks in his wake for labels like U2X Productions Detroit and Carl Craig�s Planet E label. Starting in 1999 with his �Niko Marks & the City Boy Players� release with Fowlkes, Marks has released new music nearly every year. As a live performer, he�s found himself doing stripped down DJ sets as well as bringing his body of work to life as a jazz trio. �The trio gives people something more real, something move live,� says Marks. �The interaction is greater for me, but it�s still dance music at the end of the day.� His raw talent as a musician takes center stage as rich instrumentation becomes a soulful weapon over crisp electronic drums. There�s crossover appeal here that plays as well in the basement dive as it does in the jazz club. Marks describes �Day Of Knowing� as a decades-long culmination of producing, arranging and writing � but coming back home to his roots at the same time.