Artist: Martyn
Title: Ghost People
Label: Brainfeeder
Release Date: October 2011
Genre: Techno/Dubstep/Hybrid
Medium: Vinyl 12″ / Digital Download

October has seen Martyn release his sophomore album, Ghost People, successor to 2009’s Great Lengths, on Flying Lotus’s Brainfeeder imprint. After last month’s interview, the final verdict is in at last.

For fans of Martyn’s earlier work Ghost People may at first come as somewhat of a surprise. Diverging from the darker sound of his debut album its overall feel is much more playful, aggressive and dancefloor-oriented. Whereas Great Lengths was what Martyn himself has called a “showcase of his talent and abilities” and as such more of a portfolio of sorts, Ghost People follows a distinct musical direction and sticks to it. Expecting to find more in the vein of the piano interlude “Bridge” or intense, deep dubs like “Far Away” may lead to some early disappointment. Ghost People walks a different path, yet does so while retaining most of the elements that made Martyn’s debut resonate with a great number of fans across a broad stretch of genres.

Within the confines of contemporary electronic music’s melting-pot of genres, a middle ground is visibly emerging where a multitude of styles meet. In particular (but not limited to) the stripped down raw 4/4 sound dominant on much of the continent for the past decade and the bassdriven dub-influenced ones from the UK. It’s this playing field where Martyn both represents and transcends a particular strand of hybrid, futuristic music. Ghost People claims its spot as a product of this particular environment, yet at the same time seems to be somewhat out of place and at times even serving as a blueprint for possibly conceivable future musical development.

What makes the album special is Martyn’s ability to not simply merge a limited selection of different styles of electronic music into one, but rather his skill at taking specific elements from a wide variety and assembling something positively undefinable in the process. Everything from 2step, garage, dubstep, (Detroit) techno, electronica and even oldschool electro can be found well-placed and precisely dosaged on Ghost People. Not one of its eleven tracks sounds cliched or falls clearly into either the one or the other musical genre, yet all capture the essence of what it is that makes their individual genres great. From the driving 909-esque hihats of “Ghost People” to the 2-step funk of “Popgun” and the almost New Order-like electro of “Bauplan”, each track contributes to this album in a unique way. Closing track “We Are You in the Future” stands out as a culmination of everything the album has to offer and at almost nine minutes long manages to elegantly avoid the trap of repetition by introducing, removing and reintroducing particular sounds while allowing enough space to communicate with both the listener and its in-track audible cousins.

Is there nothing less praiseworthy to say about the album then? It sure is hard and most of it feels like nitpicking. Perhaps one could argue it’s not as emotional an album as its predecessor was or that there aren’t any absolutely “killer” dubstep or techno tracks on it. The former however is a matter of perception and willingness to interpret, whereas the latter is probably one of the core reasons Ghost People is likely to stand the test of time very well.

(For Dutch readers who’d like some more reflection on that last remark, I recommend checking out this nail on the head blog post by colleague Michiel Eskes).

Tracklist:

01. Love And Machines feat. Spaceape
02. Viper
03. Masks
04. Distortions
05. Popgun
06. I Saw You At Tule Lake
07. Ghost People
08. Twice As
09. Bauplan
10. Horror Vacui
11. We Are You In The Future

Full stream of the album:

Review and words by Harrison van der Vliet

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