Martyn Bennett – Grit (Real World Records)
CD/DL
19 May 2014
The final album from music maverick the late Martyn Bennett is
re-released.
This is an album like no other, make no mistake. Originally released in 2003, Grit has been
re-released to coincide with the theatre production of the same name to celebrate
the life of Martyn Bennett as part of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games
Cultural Project.
Just over eleven years ago, Martyn lost his fierce fight with cancer
of the lymphomas at the age of only 33.
He left behind him a memory of one of the most original artists to have
graced these shores where his music was both daring and exciting.
Sounding like a good Fat Boy Slim might have done if he hadn’t gone
rubbish, Bennett goes the extra mile when he manages to make a mix of modern
electronic music mixed with traditional Scottish songs sound like the perfect
combination. It sounds like a recipe for
disaster, but ends up sounding like one of the most refreshing things you will
ever hear.
The voices of traditional singers and travelers ooze with emotion
over often powerful walls of sound which, it seems, were made for each other.
Lead track, Move starts gentle enough with a lone guitar and voice
but soon thunders into existence with samples and a fiercely crunching bass and
percussion sound which is quite characteristic of the album. It’s a quite incredible beginning and sets
the standard amazingly high from the beginning.
Whilst Martyn found himself unable to play on the album, it remains
a truly unique vision which he successfully transferred from mind to
studio. The combination of old voices,
new music, and random soundbytes and shouts is perfectly displayed on Chanter,
a powerhouse of a track which is as remorseless in its booming backbeat as it
is in its refusal to lie-down. Nothing
short of amazing.
Nae Regrets again fuses the incomprehensible blend with a rousing
string accompaniment. Why slows the pace
somewhat and allows a breath of fresh air to the otherwise manic proceedings as
does Wedding which completes a sandwich between Ale House - clearly a pub that
must be visited!
Rant is the sort of thing that the aforementioned Norman Cooke
should (and could) really have been aiming for as more crashing, crunching and
varied instruments combine with traditional Gaelic instrumentation and singing.
The close to the ‘original’ album is a strange affair and whilst it
may have had special meaning to Martyn, Storyteller requires particularly
patient listening. A man tells a tale in a broad accent with a simple
backing. Unfortunately, to an outsider
it’s often difficult to understand but is rescued slightly by a throbbing moon
stomp of a beat. At almost ten minutes,
it’s a little long.
This re-issue contains two extra tracks – a remix of Peter Gabriel’s
Sky Blue from the album Up which was the last thing Martyn worked on, and a
truly beautiful piece Mackay’s Memoirs performed by The City Of Edinburgh Music
School for whom it was written. The
final recording was completed the day after Martyn died.
A quite superb album from an artist who was clearly at his peak, and is sorely missed.
9.5/10
Links
No comments:
Post a Comment