July Wakes, The (Live In Chorley, 1986) - John Martyn

Advantages: Highly original and relaxing acoustic guitar songs, superbly played
Disadvantages: Inferior bonus tracks might interfere with the mood of the album for some.

.... Back Down The River is a plain and gentle song, just John on his own, short and sweet. We then come to the climax of the whole album, Glistening Glyndebourne. This is a six and a half minute instrumental jam. It starts out building slowly for a couple of minutes with piano, double bass and guitar, before markedly picking up tempo, and adding congas and drums. Martyn for the first time uses the Echoplex on his guitar, which adds rhythmic layers of sound to the whole piece, a technique that he was to feature prominently on future recordings and live performances. Martyn finally closes out with a short but idiosyncratic version of Singing In The Rain. On its own this track would be questionable, but in context of the whole album, it's included as a light-humoured contrast to the previous extraordinary track and wraps up the album... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Provides a great introduction to John Martyns folk, blues, and jazz fusion
Disadvantages: Only contains work from 71-87

...This is truly a sweet little mystery of fusion music. I found that the cd indulged varied styles from jazz to tradition folk. Anyone who has an interest in chilled jazz or acoustic music will regard the compilation highly. Very good value for money and the hardcore fans will get what they want due to a cleverly compiled album. A good insight to John Martyns work over these 16 years however this is also the miner flaw as his earlier work is regarded as the best, and this version of Spencer the rover is not his greatest, as I would have preferred his live recording. A strong album of life with underlining jazz rhythms and melodies with an influence of skip James tweaking. A album of pure effortless elegance. Truly experimental, relaxing and meaningful tunes.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Intermate performance by John Martyn
Disadvantages: Too much audience 'murmur' in the background

...This recording is of a solo set John Martyn did at the Medway Folk Centre in Kent, England. The proprietor of the folk club recorded the show on a reel to reel tape machine. Being this was the source of this recording the quality is acceptable although a bit echoy with rather too much audience murmur in the background. What you do get is the feel of an intimate folk club. The interpretation of the songs is also intimate, with several gentle love songs, as well as a touch of jazz and blues with full use of the echoplex unit. PLEASE NOTE. The original publicity about the album from HUX records said that the album would contain 9 tracks from the Medway Recodings, and 4 other tracks from radio recordings. This is what most sellers are advertising. The album however is in fact only 9 tracks long and DOES NOT contain the tracks Flying... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful