You couldn't place it to a specific year or genre if you tried. It is a totally timeless record, and as the years go on, hitting timely annual anniversaries of Drake and Martyn's deaths, you realise just how ahead of his time Martyn was.
A boyish 18 when he left Glasgow, Martyn didn't complete his Jekyll & Hyde switch from blond cherub to snarling, menacing, jazz-folk demon until the early 1970s, but these vinyl reissues of his first four records capture his determined efforts to lose his innocence.
Having come through the same secondary school –Shawlands Academy– as Moors Murderer Ian Brady, John Martyn was wont to present himself as a Glasgow tough in his darker days, a mask that suited him well as alcohol and drug use exacerbated his meanest tendencies.
It's a nice idea, to go back to roots and search out the acoustic fledgling days of John Martyn and all that followed.
Hij was net zo'n grote als Nick Drake en Tim Buckley, maar bij het grote publiek is John Martyn nooit zo bekend geworden.
Things come full circle as Martyn, whose acoustic beginnings gave way to forceful, brooding electronica, is stripped bare.
Zwoele zondagochtendmuziek is het, zonder enige poespas en toch recht in het hart.
If you were too strapped or scared to commit to last year's Brobdingnagian 18-disc Island Years box set, this comparatively svelte four-disc iteration creams off the most noteworthy alternate takes, epochal live performances and rarities featured on its corpulent parent.
John Martyn Seigneur Folk Tout en Finesse
It's more than a little ironic that this sumptuous box celebrating Martyn's lengthy tenure at Island should include the first official appearance of the album that brought about the end of his relationship with the company.
