Drummer Justyn Lawrence of the band Marbin said the group didn’t rehearse before the first show they played together.

“We did not have a rehearsal because everything flowed so well,” Lawrence said. “It was almost like we had played together before because music is such a universal language.”

With two of its members being Israeli, that language is what brought the band together.

Marbin will perform in Iowa City for the second time at 10 p.m. Saturday at the Yacht Club, 13 S. Linn St. Admission is $6.

Lawrence and bassist Jae Gentile are from Chicago, and guitarist Dani Rabin and saxophonist Danny Markovitch are of Israeli descent. Not only were the members pleased to find that their respective backgrounds meshed well, but they also realized their music somewhat reflected the blend of cultures, creating a unique and instrumental sound.

Rabin said the group’s genre is hard to put a finger on, but he would label it as jazz-fusion.

“The [Israeli] influence is pretty apparent in the music, but the other two musicians have a Southern-gospel influence,” he said. “It’s an eclectic mix, jazz and rock together.”

Because Marbin’s sound is mostly instrumental, Markovitch likes to focus on the melody of the music rather than what it is described as.

“We play songs that are not ordinary, and we like to keep it grooving and faster than usual,” he said.

Markovitch was in the Israel army as an infantry sergeant, which he said was another influence on his music. Although he could not play saxophone during that time, he worked up to eight hours a day after his service to regain his chops.

“The Army affected me on a personal level,” he said. “The stuff you play directly correlates to who you are, and for most people that comes out of a big experience like college, but for me it was the Army.”

Marbin is touring across America and prepping for its fourth album, The Third Set, scheduled for a January release. The album will be composed entirely of live songs; the band brought a sound engineer on tour and recorded 14 live shows as a basis for the project.

Rabin said that they usually play long shows, consisting of three very diverse 45-minute sets.

“The first set we play is serious, the second is loose, and the third is when we’re all drunk and when anything goes, and we made a compilation of those three,” Rabin said.  “The previous albums we made were very thought out, but this project is very loose, and we want give the people what they know and what they see.”

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