Wednesday, May 21, 2014

MP3 REVIEW: Aaron Martin “Chapel Floor”



                Aaron Martin only recently became familiar to me because of this recent cassette release I saw on his Bandcamp page, which is also available through Sonic Meditations.   After browsing his Bandcamp page, I found a number of other releases up there and if they are half as good as this then consider me about to review his full catalogue as well.

                One thing that I noticed was odd on his “merch” section rather than “music” side is that this appears to be his first cassette release.   Everything else up there for sale physically is either record or CD.    If this is indeed the first Aaron Martin cassette, I’m going to perhaps be even more influenced in purchasing it for the sake that I like to have all good music at least on cassette (Not owning CDs or even records by great musicians doesn’t bother me as much)

                Aaron Martin performs primarily the cello throughout these songs, though other instruments do come into play and there is even the occasional singing so as not to create a completely instrumental feel.   For me personally, it is hard to place people who play the cello because I don’t hear it (or strings in general) as much as I’d like to, or at least not in this tone.

                The songs are dark and sad, as they can resemble that of the band Murder by Death without the western feel.   There is some harmonica throughout this as well, which is an interesting choice (At least that’s what it sounds like to me) and then there is also a bit of synth organ which somehow makes me think less of church (as per the title) and more of a dial tone.

                The first seven songs were recorded live in a studio and the last eight through twelve were recorded live on a stage.   I always find it funny when artists have to denote that their songs are being played “live”, in the way that 8-12 say it in parentheses, as if 1-7 were played from beyond the grave.  In any event, this is something worth looking into and I shall be checking out his other works as well now.

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