It is never easy to predict what is coming next from Laura J Martin. Her previous solo album, 2016’s ‘On the Never Never’ was recorded in Nashville with members of Lambchop, Silver Jews and Jesus Lizard. Most recently, in 2020 she collaborated with Lavania Blackwall, formerly of Trembling Bells, on the exquisite freak folk project, Wyndow. Her latest album, ‘Prepared’, is a record that creates its own distinct world inspired in part by living on the number 86 bus route into Liverpool City Centre and the bustle of activity. It is a record that takes inspiration from German electronic pioneers Harmonia and the polyrhythms of Francis Bebey’s Psychedelic Sanza to create beguiling textures, built around her familiar flute but alongside pianos and synths with tuning minds of their own and drum machines reluctant to stay in time.
The nine tracks start with ‘Prepared’, its ornate synths could be soundtracking a slow motion sequence in ‘Chariots of Fire’. The layering of Martin’s voice is exquisite giving an emotional resonance to a hymn to self-reliance but not perfection and looking back on ways of judging yourself. The electronic rhythms of ‘Counting Time’ conjure the feel of clockwork mechanisation matching the lyrical imagery (“Wilful knuckles are making fire / The humming of hot, hot wires”) while ethereal melodies and flute lines bubble over the top.
Co-producer Iwan Morgan, who has previously worked with Euros Childs, Cate Le Bon and Gruff Rhys, adds vocals to ‘Living on the Wall’, a tune with a sense of motion and a compelling way of blending their voices with pianos, flute and beats. ‘A Better Story’ is a reverie of nostalgia and imagination, managing to be a swooning yet wonky ballad.
‘Three Days’ is one of the more minimalist tracks and is highly atmospheric in its depiction of the twilight lives of shift workers (“Three days on and two days off / Three days gone and two days lost… Turns my body into chaos inside out”). Similar territory is mined on ‘Outside at Night’, the song elevated by the interplay between Morgan’s matter-of-fact delivery and Martin’s Kate Bush-like swirl, the flute twirls giving it an added kick of drama.
‘The Dials’ sees Martin repeating the title, sometimes sounding quizzical to the point of bemusement. ‘Magic Mornings’ is an ode to sunrise (“Those magic mornings can’t be beat / As night dissolves and then retreats”) with a beguiling melody and sounds of distant activity. The album closes with ‘Open Door’, a prism through which both wistful nostalgia (“where life once were In the younger days”) and fear (“Dreading irrelevance In the older days”) are viewed.
‘Prepared’ is an album that does take a few listens to fully work its magic. What starts off seeming slightly intangible gradually reveals itself to have a rich textural palette, melodies that are sometimes assertive and often subtly persuasive, leading to emotional engagement as it creates its immersive world.
Laura J Martin: Prepared – Out 17th May 2024 (Summer Critics)
J Martin – Prepared (Official Video) (youtube.com)
I was editor of the long-running fanzine, Plane Truth, and have subsequently written for a number of publications. While the zine was known for championing the most angular independent sounds, performing in recent years with a community samba percussion band helped to broaden my tastes so that in 2021 I am far more likely to be celebrating an eclectic mix of sounds and enthusing about Made Kuti, Anthony Joseph, Little Simz and the Soul Jazz Cuban compilations as well as Pom Poko and Richard Dawson.
