John Martyn - Inside Out (1973)

Jazzy folkiness turned, yep, inside out, by the artist's quest for sonic experimentation.  The artist being John Martyn (1948-2009), who was first described to me as "Nick Drake discovering krautrock", and yes, that works here and there.  The almost-title track is one of Martyn's most striking examples of his mastery of the Echoplex unit, working up a Göttsching-like rhythmic storm.  It then dissolves into near-formless ambience during Bobby Keys' sax solo, but is always underpinned (as throughout the album) by Danny Thompson's rock solid bass.

Two completely instrumental tracks further cement this as Martyn's most out-there studio album: a nifty arrangement of the Irish folk tune Eibhli Ghail Chiuin ni Chearbhail and a superb piece named for his then-wife Beverley.  Beyond that are some superb songs, personal favourites being the lengthy Make No Mistake and the album opener Fine Lines, which sounds the closest to Nick Drake and also to this album's better-known predecessor Solid Air.  Inside Out always edges it for me though, with its much looser, live-in-the-studio feel.

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