In the two years that have passed since the release of his debut album ‘Great Lengths’, Holland born and Washington DC-based electronic producer Martyn (real name Martijn Deykers) has been busy pursuing a hectic global DJ schedule, whilst also somehow finding time to compile last year’s Fabriclive mix. This highly anticipated second album ‘Ghost People’, his first for the LA-based Brainfeeder label certainly bears the influence of the large amounts of time Deykers has been spending in clubs recently, with the eleven tracks collected here coming across as easily his most limber and free-flowing to date. In many senses, this latest collection also sees the more overt dubstep influences present in his previous work receding away even more, in favour of classic Chicago house and UK rave stylings.
After opening track ‘Love And Machines’ sees Spaceape’s gravelly spoken word floating against a shimmering backdrop of retro synth-arpeggiation and blissful ambient pads that calls to mind Oneohtrix’s hypnagogic landscapes, the aptly-titled ‘Viper’ kicks things straight in with a stabbing rave bassline that’s a close cousin to 808 State’s ‘Cubik’ as steely house snares and 808 handclaps gather momentum against an uneasy backdrop of swirling ambience. From there, ‘Masks’ locks things straight down into juddering Ron Hardy-esque house structures that carry more than a stray hint of garage swagger as urgent rave bleeps create a sense of mounting tension beneath the flitting male vocal samples and growling bass distortion, before ‘Popgun’ brings the angular two-step stylings to the forefront and ‘Bauplan’ ventures out into icy krautrock-kissed electro as retro synth-voice stabs pulse against a burbling backdrop of TB303 bass tones and frigid synth melodies that sit somewhere between Cluster and Jarre. While there are perhaps no ‘huge’ standout tracks this time around, from the sounds of things, that’s just the way Martyn wants it, preferring to focus on a continuous sense of flow, rather than peaks.
Chris Downton
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