Wikipedia

Martin Rev (album)

Martin Rev is the debut solo album by Martin Rev. It was released in February 1980 on Lust/Unlust Music via their Infedility imprint. The album showcases the cerebral synth-pop sensibilities of its artist, who was one half of the pioneering synthpunk duo Suicide.

Martin Rev
Studio album by
Martin Rev
ReleasedFebruary 1980 (1980-02)
Recorded
  • December 1979
  • 1991 (bonus tracks)
StudioSorcerer Sound Recording Studios, New York City
Genre
Length29:45 (original)
Label
ProducerMartin Rev and Charles Ball
Martin Rev chronology
Martin Rev
(1980) 		Clouds of Glory
(1985)

Recording

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Martin Rev (1980) marks the solo debut of Martin Rev (here pictured in 2005).

Suicide's manager Marty Thau first approached Martin Reverby with the idea for him to record a solo album on Thau's Red Star Records in 1978, shortly after the release of Suicide's 1977 debut album on the same label. Rev was receptive, but Alan Vega (the other half of Suicide) felt it was too early for either artist to go solo. In the fall of 1979—by which point Suicide was in a touring lull and Red Star had been in financial trouble—Rev revived the idea for a solo album. He pitched it to Charles Ball, Suicide's live audio engineer in Europe. Ball was the owner of Lust/Unlust Music, which had a number of imprints devoted to various flavors of post-punk music, including Infedility, which was focused on no wave music from New York City. After Ball gave Rev the greenlight, Rev recorded the album in December 1979 at Sorcerer Sound Recording Studios, owned by Alan Fierstein and located at 19 Mercer Street.[1] Martin Rev was recorded with synthesizer, rhythm machine, xylophone, piano, microphone, and eight-track recorder.[1][2] Rev self-produced the album with Ball.[3]

Composition

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Side one opens with "Mari", named after Rev's wife Mari Reverby (née Montgomery), who briefly played in Suicide in the early 1970s.[4] It sports a dense, upbeat synthesizer melody with rhythm-machine percussion.[1] "Baby O Baby", the only song on the album to feature vocals, has Rev singing with a guttural, monotone affect. "Nineteen 86" features distorted church bell samples while a synth riff runs in the background.[1]

Side two opens with "Temptation", with xylophone providing the main melody, while deep and wooshing synth pulses provide counter-melody and ambiance. "Jomo" sports harmonium-esque drones underneath a bedrock of splashing synth noise and a motorik beat.[1][4] "Asiá", the closing track, features piano and rhythm machine above synthesized organ and metallic echoing.[4][1]

Release

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Martin Rev was released in February 1980 on Infedility,[5] shortly before the release of Suicide's second album on ZE Records.[1] In 1997, the album was re-released on Daft Records of the Netherlands as Marvel, with the bonus tracks "Coal Train" and "Marvel" (recorded later in 1991) added to the end of the original track list.[6][7] In 2002, it was reissued under its original self-titled name on Reachout International Records (ROIR), featuring the aforementioned bonus tracks as well as three additional songs recorded in the same 1991 session: "5 to 5", "Wes", and "Daydreams".[6] In 2013, Superior Viaduct reissued the album with the original 1980 track list.[4]

Reception

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New York Rocker's Roy Trakin called the album a "particularly revelatory in capturing [Rev's] left-field genius".[8] Tiny Mix Tapes's Clifford Allen described it as "full of stunningly beautiful passages ... it shouldn't be overlooked in any study of punk-era electronics or the Madagascan array of art that permeated Koch-era New York".[4] Charlotte Robinson, reviewing the 2002 reissue in PopMatters, called it "an erratic and sometimes exhausting listen", inconsistent but overall interesting.[6] She found the original tracks ultimately "reinforcing the assertion that Rev was 20 years ahead of his time".[6] Jon Savage of The Guardian called it a "a prime, albeit forgotten example" of the 1980s golden age of electronic music: "[I]n its dark minimalism, it points forward to Plastikman, the Tresor artists and other future explorers".[9]

Track listing

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All tracks are written by Martin Rev

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Mari"4:25
2."Baby O Baby"4:47
3."Nineteen 86"4:35
Side two
No.TitleLength
4."Temptation"7:18
5."Jomo"4:40
6."Asiá"4:00
Total length:29:45
1997 bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
7."Coal Train"5:28
8."Marvel"12:50
Total length:48:03
2002 bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
9."5 to 5"2:00
10."Wes"4:16
11."Daydreams"5:22
Total length:59:41

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Needs, Kris (2015). "Eighteen". Suicide: Dream Baby Dream, A New York City Story. Omnibus Press. ISBN 9781783235353.
  2. ^ Robbins, Ira A. (1989). The New Trouser Press Record Guide. Collier Books. p. 476. ISBN 9780020363705 – via the Internet Archive.
  3. ^ May, Chris (June 13, 2017). "An introduction to Suicide in 10 records". The Vinyl Factory. Archived from the original on September 10, 2018.
  4. ^ a b c d e Allen, Clifford (May 16, 2013). "1980: Martin Rev – Martin Rev". Tiny Mix Tapes. Archived from the original on June 29, 2013.
  5. ^ Blush, Steven (2016). New York Rock: From the Rise of The Velvet Underground to the Fall of CBGB. St. Martin's Publishing Group. p. 170. ISBN 9781250083623 – via Google Books.
  6. ^ a b c d Robinson, Charloette (January 26, 2003). "Martin Rev: Self-titled". PopMatters. Archived from the original on September 29, 2020.
  7. ^ C., D. (December 1996). "Martin Rev: Marvel". Dark Entries (14): 23 – via the Internet Archive.
  8. ^ Trakin, Roy (May 1980). "Martin Rev: Martin Rev". New York Rocker. Quoted in Needs, Kris (2015). "Eighteen". Suicide: Dream Baby Dream, A New York City Story. Omnibus Press. ISBN 9781783235353.
  9. ^ Savage, Jon (January 10, 2013). "Hidden treasures: Martin Rev – Martin Rev". The Guardian. Archived from the original on November 15, 2013.

Further reading

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