Ahh, the artist album. It's often a tricky format to master, with the risk of failure through repeating past glories a beast that often rears its head. Sadly, within electronic music, many end up regurgitating a successful formula that’s tried and tested, proving that it’s tricky to cling on to these former triumphs whilst updating a sound in an interesting, forward thinking fashion.
Essentially the very fabric and ambition behind electronic music concentrating on this futurist view, Martyn has managed to show unnerving creativity and a flair for musicality throughout the course of his discography, usually created through playing with dubstep, techno and everything in between. The Air Between Words allows the malleable artist surprise and reinvigorate for a third time, taking a fresh approach to the music he produces – completely shunning his past glories and creating a non cohesive work that doesn’t fall back on any of previous triumphs. A renegade that’s constantly (and covertly) nestled himself in the shadowy crevasses created by bass music and 4-4 rhythms’ contempoary collision, Martijn Deykers doesn’t try to relive the past on his new 'organic' work - but rather shuns it completely as he journeys into a world free from genre constraints and multi-fluous influences.
One of the main differences between this new full length and his previous two LP’s – 2007’s Great Lengths and 2011’s Ghost People - is the lack of straight concept and narrative. Great Lengths focused on feelings of alienation, loneliness and bewilderment with a decidedly sub-heavy, Hyperdub-gilded edge; Ghost People expanded the peripheral edges of the dance-floor via Vangelis and deconstructed beats a la Brainfeeder; The Air Between Words breaks down concepts through a mesh of vocalists, analogue recordings and disseminated beats, with the album representing a non linear collection of work that’s borne of the moment. Without a linear structure or specific album concept at play on, the roaming dance music outsider ploughs a non-cohesive collection of ‘weightless’ music, rather than engineered behind a deeper concept or working as part of a stronger narrative of emotion, feeling and overall tone.
And with this new direction comes multiple palettes of sound to offer up to the listener. Forgiveness Step 1 (and later on down the line, Forgiveness Step 2) give Martyn the room to create breathy, sonic tapestries that burn at their own pace, arbitrary pace before lightly combusting. His four-to –the-floor roots make a solid comeback on Empty Mind, a jacking beast weighted down by a thick and gooesy analogue bassline, flanked by Martyn’s trademark eerie melodies and weighted kick-drum punch, contains more house-rooted swing than the stiff, funky-techno hybrids found on Great Lengths. 'Drones' mixes up Detroit influenced jazz timbres and lightly dusted house touches. Punch, modern acid blasts flank Two Leads and A Computer, while single release Glassbeadgames featuring Auteur Four Tet stripping back the overall sound to a basic fusion of beats, bass and at times, ascending melodies. Hyperdub’s Copeland offers one of the standout moments from this non-cohesive collection of roughly cut output on Love of Pleasure, mixing piano riff house, acidic aftertastes and a sensual, bare-all vocal that reminds of These Words, Great Lengths’ vocal bass triumph with dBridge.
The album may sit uneasily with fans of Martyn's work, maybe struggling to come to terms with the Dutchman's 'Walkabout' period, returning with what sounds like rough, intentionally closed-off sketches of his futurist visions that don;t really flow in the same manner as previous full length albums. But what can you expect from a restless producer who's released on nearly every kitsch and cool label conceivable?
| Artist: Martyn Title: The Air Between Words LP Label: Ninja Tune Tracklist 01. Forgiveness Step 102. Glassbeadgames (with Four Tet)03. Empty Mind04. Drones05. Love of Pleasure (with copeland)06. Two Leads and a Computer07. Forgiveness Step 208. Like That09. Lullaby10. Fashion Skater Our rating: 8/10 |  |
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