Martyn - Ghost People

File this under hype threads I never thought I'd start. I didn't like Great Lengths very much (great noises, kinda boring grooves), and only listened to this one because a friend was repping really heavily for it, but this is... banging! Like, this is what most of the dudes on the dance partisans thread THINK they sound like, it's dark and it's bassy but never falls victim to the modern malaise of going "look, bass!" and just leaving it to stodge away without doing anything interesting. He's always been better at sound design than most of the artists he's associated with, but he's evidently worked out how to construct a groove, which helps.

Mercifully there's barely any corny post-dubstep residue here at all, it feels like a proper big-room techno album, with big old-skool rave and 90s house hooks filtered through rhythms that might be funky if they weren't so cold and metallic. And it sort of reminds me of Tiefschwarz circa-2004 and what we used to call Space Battle Techno in its ravey maximalism...

Spotify link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5Umn2nmno0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1O9WJrKljE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=velQjpqRDwM

yes, it's excellent and the sound design is great; i particularly like the use of that front 242 sample on "viper". the breakbeat tracks were also surprisingly refreshing sounding. it's very rare that i'll buy an album of this stuff but i'm glad i picked this one up.

Checking now. Like you I didn't really get into 'Great Lengths'. Stuff before the album, like his remixes of Efdemin and TRG and the EP on Applepips still stand up I think.

Popgun is pretty immense. I've been a sucker for pitched snare sounds since the jungle days.

great album. popgun and the last two tracks are huge.

the london's arches edit of viper is pretty cool too: http://soundcloud.com/3024world/viper-londons-arches-edit

great lengths was a bit of a slog but the best bits were really good - right?star! and elden st iirc.

kinda weird that this is on brainfeeder

i really liked the idea of 'great lengths' but found it never really drew me in - kind of boring grooves, like matt dc said.

these sound nice tho.

I much preferred the preceding 12"s to anything that appeared on Great Lengths. 'All I have is memories' was a beautiful track.

^^^ but I haven't heard Ghost People yet.

My brostep loving brother and his friends have been going on about this, which made me cautious, even though I didn't actually dislike Great Lengths (a bit long and grey but great singles) - but it turns out this is actually really good. I can see why it appeals to them - ear-grabbing noises, clattery rhythms, rave signifiers from the past twenty years falling over themselves - but it's cold, crisp and twisted enough to be more than basic tropes regurgitated, and it doesn't really align itself with house, techno, dubstep or funky, more the hinterland between. Texturally, it reminds me of Actress' albums, but if they're the 8am comedown on a dark morning then this is the 2am party drenched in sweat.

It bangs.

apropos of nothing much here is a forum thread about Martyn being a scam artist started in 2009 by the world's stupidest man

That page is taking ages to load here, but while my computer chunters away I just want to say that the last track on Ghost People was absolutely immense. This guy has a new album out soon right?

wow that's some forum design

looking forward to the new album

enjoying his detroit techno direction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVzLX7_lmdg

ha good thread over there

Been getting heavily into this guy's back catalogue recently, great stuff.

which tracks in particular do you really enjoy?

i actually haven't liked much of his stuff since "ghost people" but the doms/deykers collaborations with steffi are dope

I'm nuts about his Efdemin remix that sounds like a beatless version of Aphex Twin's "on".

this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh4JXXTanL4

which tracks in particular do you really enjoy?

― the late great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVXPVJloWhc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGKavKQgtns

xxp yep

I'm on the fence about much of the Doms & Deykers album, but this one is enormous:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M56Ft0KCLXM

It's You I See is the one for me. They both worked together on the Virginia album too which is probably my favourite dance long-play of the year.

Thanks, I'll give that a listen.

Erm... If you provide a little more information on it! Proving hard to google...

https://open.spotify.com/album/2FsoqzeL3EHhOpJQUPuimg

Ta!

'Mind Rain' is an absolute fucking monster. If this is the direction he's going in with Ostgut Ton then I'm on board.

Love this dude.