Every now and again, going forward, I will post a guest feature from an outside contributor. This one has come from Richard Dawes, and he's opted to review three Martin Grech albums in one sitting. It's definitely worth a read, as it's a cracking piece of writing.
Open Heart Zoo (2002) Score: 82
Unholy(2005) Score: 80
March of the Lonely (2007) Score: 81
Martin Grech opens my 'Musical Enigmas'
series for a very good reason. This is an artist who has so much
potential for future growth and recognition that he quite literally
is a testament to modern musical experimentation.
Here's the thing – Grech has never
tried to make his music for a particular audience. That much is
clear. He is a divisive musician in that his work has no consistency
in terms of style. He very much is a 'take me how you hear me NOW'
artist. He is not interested in commercial appeal, he has a
constantly developing style and that's his way. It is very
challenging to pigeon hole Grech's music into a specific genre. So
I'm going to invent one just for arguments sake – Experimental
Alternative.
Most people will only have heard
Grech's work in the Lexus advert which used the title song from his
debut album in 2002. Those who actually went on to discover more
about this singer/instrumentalist/producer would be richly rewarded.
When I first came across 'Open Heart Zoo' it was actually via one of
those old CD listening stands in my now sadly defunct local
independent music shop. I listened to the entire album end to end
without feeling the need to skip to the next track– and I have
never ever done that with a new album since.
A variety of reasons were at play here.
One was Grech's very distinctive voice – though, unlike some, I do
not think Jeff Buckley has anything on Grech despite the constant
comparisons some critics make. The opening verse of 'Here it Comes'
quite honestly stupified me – a frenetic baseline, a very ethereal
augmented lead guitar, with a variety of disparate electronic
elements at play in the rhythm section which could be supplied by an
808 state. The intensity of this track was beyond anything I had ever
heard a solo artist deliver – and bear in mind that Grech provides
most of his instrumentation himself, in this case drums, piano and
guitar. This was an artist of music bar none in a modern age where
solo artists rely more and more on session musicians. Which brings me
to his voice.
Martin Grech's voice is possibly the
most flexible instrument in his arsenal. He has an absolutely
astounding falsetto – and his range is extensive in the
extreme. If you listen to him on 'Penicillin' in particular he makes
that chorus soar – soulful and sustained throughout the song.
Indeed, 'Open Heart Zoo' demonstrates perfectly the amount of musical
influences that Grech ploughs into one song. Opening with a very
lonely repetitive piano drone, he leads us through the song with his
voice at near constant falsetto. A string section of violins
accompanies the sound of steam being released, alongside sounds of
city traffic. As the song builds to the bridge, which is quite
astounding, he twists his voice into perfectly controlled but
uncomfortable avenues. The vocal control is amazing, purely from a
perspective of technique but also he has elements of the best folk
singers as he becomes a storyteller for the listener.
It would be three long years before
Grech would release his next work 'Unholy'. There is a distinct shift
evident here stylistically. The opening track 'Guiltless' is a
cacophany of influences – everything from Nine Inch Nails to Wagner
could be referenced in this song alone. The tone of this album is
distinctly darker and dare I say, gothic. Shredding guitars,
distorted vocal elements, heavy use of double bass tapping, a
veritable rollercoaster of an album. 'I Am Chromosome' is a perfect
example of this and I am particularly taken with the use of the piano
to juxtapose against the Death Metal-esque interjections of the
guitars throughout the song. At the risk of sounding controversial I
actually think Grech uses the piano as a driver for his music in a
much more interesting fashion than Matt Bellamy, who tends just to
give selected songs s more 'classical' edge (much as I am an admirer
of Muse's earlier albums).
Unfortunately, whilst critically well
received and embraced by existing and new fans, 'Unholy' would be
Grech's undoing. Island, disappointed with the commercial sales
terminated their deal with him. Which is where it now gets really
interesting. Grech, as I've intimated, is very hard to pin down –
he rarely gives interviews or does promotional work other than
playing live and even then his gigs are rarely widely publicised.
Sharing his music with people is how he communicates with them and I
personally believe this is not artistic pretentiousness at play,
merely a man who immerses himself in his work until he is happy to
release his vision to whoever wants to listen.
Which leads us to his last official
album, the self released ' March of the Lonely'. This totally caught
me out – having heard that he had officially gone to ground and
that he was to all intents and purposes incognito (at one point he
was apparently discovered by the police on a small island situated in
the middle of the Thames, in a tent, with an eight track recorder and
a guitar) suddenly this album appeared out of nowhere. 'March of the
Lonely' represents a massive departure from his previous works once
more. Stripped back songs, often with only an acoustic guitar as
accompaniment. I will be honest, initially I was downbeat about this
album. Where had all that vitriol gone? However, I stuck with it. I
stood corrected. Lyrically, it is probably his best work, and in 'The
Heritage' probably his best song to date. It is a very hard song to
describe – despite its simplicity on a purely instrumental level
the vocal performance is like nothing I have ever heard. There is a
distinct sense of brooding menace in the lyric ' Dig, dig , dig,
dig your coffins hole' in the
last verse that is truly chilling. But perhaps this is the secret
behind his later work in particular – there is an economy of form
and structure that when put together just coalesces into something
deeply moving and disturbing in equal measure.
Post
'March of the Lonely' Grech once again drifted into obscurity. At one
point he was working on a project titled' MeatSuit' and some tracks
were released via MySpace (yes, it was THAT long ago!). Then he
released a series of rough cut demos under the working title 'Meta'
which were available for download but then disappeared just as
quickly as they were uploaded. Following from this a couple of years
ago a new album titled 'The Watcher' was rumoured to be in the works.
Again, this soon faded into the ether. However, Grech is still
collaborating with other musicians, particularly those who have drawn
influence from his music. Tesseract have him on their new album
'Polaris' contributing vocals on the track 'Hexes'.I can also
recommend a track called 'Zenith' from the album 'Residual Hum From A
Parallel Universe' by a collective of artists known as
SomewhereNotHere. It is very much a Grechian inspired track – it
demonstrates his vocal range exceptionally well. Only last week I
happened upon Grech lending his voice to the track 'Black Sun on the
Horizon' on Gunship's self titled album. Another departure for Grech,
this song is almost a modern ballad.
So
what next? There are rumblings abounding that Grech is now with a
producer working on his fourth album with the working title 'Hush
Mortal Core'. I sincerely hope this album comes to fruition, if not
so that it may increase the reach of his back catalogue at large but
also that it may receive more appreciation from a new audience than
mere critical acclaim. Certainly the fact that he is collaborating
with a wide range of other artists seems to suggest he is gearing
himself up for more solo material to be released.
