Time Off Magazine
   
                                   JON MARSH
                                       
   
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   Photo Although Jon's original partner in The Beloved, Steve
   Waddington, left the year after the release of their 1990 album
   Happiness , Jon Marsh found that he was able to divert his energies
   into DJing and, eventually, reconstructing The Beloved with his wife
   Helena. Their latest album, X, has been influenced by Jon's path
   crossing with other DJs and from the dancefloor itself, much more than
   their first effort together, Conscience . It has been a gradual
   process of learning how to work the vast array of equipment in their
   home studio, as well as discover their own strengths in producing.
   
   "It was the first record that we'd made together, we were just
   learning how to do it," says Marsh. "If you've never produced an album
   before, you tend to draw back when you should push forward. I really
   like the songs on that album but we got a lot of people in to play on
   it. This one (X), for better or worse, has a harder, darker sound
   and we were left alone to our own devices."
   
   With tracks like the spinning 'Crystal Wave', it has been partly Jon's
   job as a DJ which has lead to a more confident and stronger direction
   for The Beloved.
   
   "The guitarist in the band left around the end of 1991, so a lot of
   things were changing," he says. "The group didn't really exist for
   about six months because it was just me on my own, and I didn't fancy
   being a solo artist. I found that DJing gave me a creative kind of
   outlet while I was trying to work out what I wanted to do at the time.
   When I started I only played in friend's clubs and parties, it wasn't
   like I walked into top gigs. I didn't want to do that. I wasn't
   technically that good when I started out and I didn't want to use my
   position as a singer in a band to get work as a DJ. It was better for
   me to be very low-key."
   
   Coming from playing in a band affected the way Jon approached his
   DJing, but it wasn't long before the two became separate in many ways.
   
   
   "When I started out, I was always looking for melody rather than
   rhythm and, as I've changed, I see dance music and the dancefloor as
   being physical and funky. I'm looking at a slightly different attitude
   to the records I'm choosing now. It's about setting a groove and
   working with that not about playing song after song after song. I
   think that just diminishes the impact of vocals as it becomes
   background music and it doesn't engage you. To some degree creating
   music and being a DJ is inseparable but, from Helena's point of view,
   she has 50% input and she's not involved in the DJing side of it. I
   think that balances it out because if it was just DJs making tracks
   together then they may end up making tracks just for other DJs."
   
   The Beloved have proved that they are constantly changing, improving
   and evolving with their music and with their partnership. Here's to a
   great meeting of minds and sounds.
   
   MOCK
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        (C) Copyright 1996 Time Off Publications.