Tuesday 6 December 2011

PHIL MARTIN LAUNCHES DEBUT SOLO ALBUM


West London singer-songwriter Phil Martin steps out from his riverside retreat in the New Year to give the world his debut album Before We Go To Paradise on the newly-founded Brentford Records.

Across ten new recordings, Before We Go To Paradise presents us with a selection of Phil’s own original songs, alongside the words of some of England’s greatest poets – Shakespeare, Coleridge, Hopkins, Blake – recast and reimagined against the emotive, occasionally quirky, background of Phil’s original music. Why, even that Bard of the Swamplands, US singer-songwriter Tony Joe White gets a look-in, his own ‘Rainy Night In Georgia’ relocated by Phil to….. where? But much more than this, by incorporating a spare, gentle background of acoustic guitar, keys and sax, Phil has set out to deliver a quintessentially English album dwelling on spirituality, resignation and humour in the modern world.

Having served time on the 80s and 90s indie-folk scene with Dr Millar & The Cute Hoors and The Shanakies (Blur’s support band of choice for the Parklife Tour), Phil has latterly been found among the ranks of Vic Godard & The Subway Sect, Jowe Head & The Demi-Monde, The Bitter Springs and The Men They Couldn’t Hang. Influenced as much by Jake Thackray as Marc Bolan, Phil Martin is – in the truest sense – both languid balladeer and punk demagogue.

Released on 30 January, Phil will be playing two special London launches for the album:

27 Jan 2012              The Docking Station, Brentford
3 Feb 2012                The Betsey Trotwood, Clerkenwell