Toby Marks, aka Banco De Gaia, is one artist who truly understands that electronic music doesn't follow the rules of other popular styles. Thanks to MIDI and sampling, the route that ideas take in becoming finished recordings is made substantially shorter than in traditional forms of music. Marks set out to make an album, but what he ended up with was enough material for a ten disc boxed set.

Marks says that he never had any interest in making electronic music until acid house hit in 1987. Taking a cue from that genre, Marks started creating his own brand of sample heavy music that ignores traditional song structure. His music's strength is in it's variety, as Marks seems to enjoy experimenting with elements of many different styles without ever limiting himself to any in particular. This is the approach that he took towards "Last Train To Lhasa," his debut album on Planet Dog/Mammoth Records.

"The album on whole had no concept, no plan," says Marks. "I just went in and wrote the individual tunes as I went along."

Though musically Marks didn't have a master plan in making the album, he did want to use it as a vehicle to spread information about the plight of the people of Tibet. The musician is involved with a Tibet support group in England and thought that it was a worthy cause to promote through his music.

The Banco De Gaia live show has received praise throughout the world, through Marks admits that performing live extensively has caused him to be less prolific than he'd like to be. Earlier in the winter, he did his first US tour (with EBN.)