Customer Reviews

Grit

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Sin an mead, 's Martyn Bennett, rugadh as Newfoundland agus togadh as Oilean Hebrides. Born in Newfoundland and raised in the Hebrides of Western Scotland, Martyn Bennett released in 1998 the best Gaelic CD of the last half of the Twentieth Century, BOTHY CULTURE. In the intervening years, he has turned out one gem after another, including last year's HARDLAND, Gaelic techno collaboration with Martin Low. Both men are brilliant, spot on pipers and multi-instrumentalists with a keen, might even say caoineadh, ear for the tradition and how it might be implicated in the cultivation of its future.
GRIT is in much the same spirit, but is the result of Bennett coming to terms with cancer and finding the grit in his soul to fight it. As such, you are not going to hear much of him actually playing on this disc. Instead, it is a captivating tapestry of tightly woven samples of Gaelic and English speakers, Gaelic and English singers from the great Scots tradition with his techno prowess driving it along. In all honesty, this disc takes what he did in BOTHY CULTURE to an unimagined level of creativity. If you are not up dancing, singing or weeping through this disc, have yer missus call the doctor, yer not long for it.
Folk-fascists will no doubt cuss this one out mightily. But for those interested in simply great, great music born of and advancing a tradition, it does not get any better than this. I can't recall being so captivated by a disc since Holger Czukay's "Persian Love Song" on the RHYTHM AND MUSIC CD from Peter Gabriel back in 1980.
The CD opens with a techno reworking of Ewan Mac Coll's "Move" with tinker Sheila Stewart sampled to incredible effect. Next up is Lizzie Higgins, another traveller, essaying "Blackbird" with incredibly sympathetic underpinning from Bennett. "Nae Regrets" features a load of original Bennett melodies, woven with Edith Piaf's "No Regrets" and Dundee native Annie Watkins chanting "I'll awa hame," with Bennett himself singing the conclusion. It is sheer genius.
"Liberation" is a deeply spiritual piece featuring Michael Marra reciting a deeply affecting Psalm 118, followed by Murdina and Elle MacDonald's Gaelic sung version. "Why" raises the philosophical and metaphysical questions of loss and death and sets the bar high for music as a way of asking The Question. Profound somehow diminishes what you want to say about it. "Ale House" is an extraordinary document featuring Jeannie Robertson, the Scots woman who got Bob Dylan up and running. "Wedding" is an extraordinary improvisation composed for his own wedding. You'd sell your sell for half this inspiration. "Rant" is just that: and full blooded for a' tha'. "Storyteller" winds it all up with the usual Scots panoply of body counts, treachery, mystery, empowerment and reconcilliation, astounding as a conclusion and likely to inspire you to stand and applaud this remarkable accomplishment.
I don't know what Martyn's status is at the moment. His website, www.martynbennet.cp.uk, has been down for a while. Having lost someone like Frankie Kennedy of ALtan at way too early an age, one would hope and pray that Martyn will find the stuff to rise up and defeat his affliction. He indicates in his notes that by examining and recasting his passion for his heritage, he has discovered that essential grit in his soul that will not allow him to give up. A remarkable man, well done!

The previous review suggests that American readers may not be aware of Martyn's death. He died in Edinburgh on 30 January, three weeks before his 34th birthday, following a long battle with the cancer Hodgkin's Lymphoma. My following brief tribute is reproduced from Amazon.co.uk.

Knowing the background to this album - that here was a very gifted musician who knew that he was dying (tragically young), and who wished to put together one final creation which would sum up his life, a statement of who he was, where he came from, and what he stood for and believed in - I found listening to it a very moving experience. Lie easy, Martyn - you've succeeded magnificently.

It's not easy to get an album out with Real World records, this company has exacting standards and only the top people get in.

Martyn Bennett is not your typical "DJ" at all. He was classically trained at one of the top music schools in his native Scotland, and plays a variety of instruments including violin, bagpipes, keyboards, frets,etc. etc. and it shows. The album takes traditional Scottish instruments and vocals and throws them together with orchestral and electronic beats to create something wholly new and incredibly powerful (not to mention emminently dance-able).

The melding of traditional Scottish instruments, pieces, and vocals against a heavy electronic backbeat is a powerful combination that is basically unlike anything you've ever heard.

The boy is gifted, hope to catch him live sometime soon...

While they share the same label, Martyn Bennett is not of the Afro-Celt line of combining Celtic music with Africa Beats and Electronica bass lines and texture. No - Martyn Bennett is a man apart and, indeed, a man above the vast majority of artists out there working in the Folk genre and in Electronica. This isn't your grand-dahs Folk, nor is it your sub-par Electronica that often gets passed off in Fusion recordings. This is the real deal -- the heart and soul of both genres brought together into amazing bloom.

From the first track, it is clear that Martyn Bennett means business. As the wailing voice of a woman enunciates over an insistent guitar loop, Bennetts builds his sonic tapestry, adding additional loops, and the beginnings of the rhythm section. With the words, "Move, Shift" and an "Oh Yeah," the song rockets into overdrive, pounding out the bass and the treble, in a glorious head-whipping, feet stomping, composition of fierce energy -- pure dancefloor, and pure heart and soul. This doesn't require liner notes -- it demands movement!

Contrast this "four on the floor" with the beauty of "Why," which samples an older gentleman telling a story about the lost past, with gentle instrumentation, and a plucking string line that draws you in, and then -- oh, the tugging on the heart -- of the guitar line, and the sparse, rhythmic section that might recall the tapping of feet, or the blacksmiths hammer, or the feel of waves slapping against the hulls of ships. Bennett's genius lies not only in his ability to create these sonic spaces; it's also his wisdom in choosing the samples that he has. Soon, the old man's story is overlapped with a sean nos song sung by a woman, her younger voice a ripe constrast between that of our storyteller. The sonic layering grows insistently, irresitably, but not in an overpowering manner.

Then there's the wry humor in the twist of songs like "Nae Regrets", and "Ale House." Traditional mouth music often contained bawdy rhymes that were saved for the correct company. In "Ale House" the singing of an older woman lilting a song an Irish song about "a bonnie wee lass who never said no" is contrasted with heavy handed beats and electronic whirring. It's an excellent update to the pounding of feet or on the table taht might have accompanied such songs. In wry twist, Bennett samples in a porn-like woman moaning, "Oh right there," reminding us of the place that some of these songs held as bawdy, pub entertainment.

This album is a brilliant advancement in Bennett's style. It far eclipses his release "Bothy Culture," in both it's maturity, cultural sensibility, and use of modern instrumentation and sounds to create a hybrid that walks and breathe like a whole, organic creation. A classic to be enjoyed for a very long time.

As the very happy, satisfied owner of Mr. Bennett's two previous discs, I bought this one (Grit) unpreviewed. Usually, I hit the nearest music store with a liberal audio preview program, but not this time. How could a disc from the likeable likes of Mr. Martyn Bennett, boy genius, be a turkey (as we used to say in the late 80s)-?? How could I be wrong?

Well, sigh, get out the gravy and stuffing, this one is a turkey.

One other review on this page indicates that Mr. Bennett is fighting cancer, which is an appalling struggle, but if I hadn't known that he was battling cancer when he put this record out, if I hadn't known the CD was a "statement" (such as it is), I'd simply say, what a dud! What a ravingly dull dud. What a noisy, sloppy, insanely un-musical dud. But linking this disc with the artist's cancer changes things: This means it's an idealistic, well-intentioned, noble dud, not just a commercial dud.

What's wrong? To me, if the songs require my turning to the little In-Box Booklet (repeatedly) for some help with figuring out what I'm listening to, then it's all a dud. If one of the most gifted musicians around plays DJ and layers/samples/munges a lot of inarticulate glop on top of a speaker-busting blast of percussion, then it's a dud. If I need help enjoying or understanding the disc, then, baby, it's a dud.

For example, this disc seems to have some purpose in pointing out the plight and suffering of the Rom people. Aside from some lost wailing on the first song, I can't figure out what it's all about--unless I am supposed to intuit the artist's intention. Well, sorry, but vague, intuitive art that depends upon a docent, a booklet or a lot of guesswork (even after the artist "explains" it) is a flop.

PS. Go hear "Art of Noise" if you want a rousing beat under (or on top of) lots of witty, articulate sonic "commentary".

So, patient reader, if you want a loud, ugly quasi-musical "editorial" (the points of which are somewhat obscure) then buy this disc. If you'be simply got to support Martyn Bennett, buy this disc. If you expect a bit more from the wonderful multi-instrumentalist, and you aren't keen on taking lots of aspirin or hearing your speakers whimper under the assault of obnoxious "beat", then skip this disc.