John Martyn - One World (1977)

A little bit more John Martyn, from some exploring of his music I did earlier this year, and also as a bit of a tribute to the late Lee Perry.  Martyn was introduced to Scratch at the Black Ark whilst holidaying in Jamaica, and the sonic kinship between their styles went on to inform this album when Perry dropped in on the recording sessions. 

Recording at Island boss Chris Blackwell's Berkshire farm, a rejuvenated Martyn refined his echoplex-guitar genius and jazzy vocals into a first-rate batch of songs, supported by dozens of musicians from the British jazz fusion and Canterbury scences.  The resulting album has been described in retrospect as 'proto-trip-hop', a genre that to be honest passed me by in its 90s heyday, so can't comment, but I do absolutely love the sound and production of One World.  The uptempo songs are dark and dublike, with Lee Perry's surreal wit inspiring the lyrics of Big Muff.

The album's second half is for the most part much more meditative, with the sweet plaintiveness of Couldn't Love You More giving way to the Latin lilt of Certain Surprise.  The upbeat Dancing was released as a single; don't suppose it had much success as such, but with an intro that wouldn't sound out of place on a Harmonia album, it's a definite favourite of mine.  The rest of the album is taken up by one of those absolute capturing-lightning-in-a-bottle production moments: with monitor speakers being recorded in the middle of a lake for ambience, and Martyn's guitar mastery at its height, Small Hours is just incredible to listen to on headphones.

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Previously posted at SGTG: Inside Out

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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