Martyn
The Air Between Words (Ninja Tune)
11/20
After the surprise link with FlyLo’s Brainfeeder label brought about Martyn’s most rugged and direct work yet, 2011’s Ghost People,he makes a logical jump to Ninja Tune to present a more streamlined, organic, and generally twee-er third album. He hasn’t lost any of the signature tuff drum programming that is unmistakably Martyn, more that he has surrounded it with a more natural, twinkling set of sounds that owe far more to Four Tet or Caribou than Ghost People did to the Hardcore Continuum. As someone who’s visibly adjusted his vision and the musical circles he operates in over the course of his career, it’s disappointing to hear Martyn default to a relatively stock house template for much of the music here. All are completely serviceable, solid tracks, but beyond tumbling along with an admirable sense of pace and momentum, it’s hard to justify their inclusion as album material (an exception can be made for Empty Mind, which possesses a creepy, unsettling quality at odds with the relative euphoria of the material around it). Maybe it’s unfair to bag on someone mellowing out their sound. After all, unless you’re Aphex Twin or Nicky Blackmarket, that’s generally how it goes. It’s just a shame he’s mellowed out in the most predictable way possible.
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Words: Steven Dores
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