Just when you thought that the world wasn’t big enough for another singer songwriter; along comes Martin (M) Craft, formerly of Sidewinder fame (remember them?), with his claim to the Johnson Blunt et al stage. But don’t worry, relax, sit back and take it easy. Unlike the rest, you wouldn’t see M Craft dead in Dawson’s Creek let alone playing his stylish eclectic mix of…Just what exactly?
After two years of set backs and promises the long awaited debut album Silver & Fire is to be finally released on 679 Recordings. That M Craft writes, sings, produces, mixes and plays all instruments (except for drums) ensures that his raw distinctive talent is brought to the fore with understated ease; fusing inventive, individual and intelligent tunes together, making Silver & Fire an unabashed delight to listen too. The diversity almost every track brings with it creates rich interwoven layers of extreme beauty and to say that the album is haunting on many different levels is an understatement.
Picked guitars, shuffling drums, xylophones and flutes, combine on the title track, all the while supporting an incredibly strong yet restrained voice. Continuing in the same vein, hazy Latin grooves are introduced and complimented with dreamy hypnotic female backing vocals on the chilling Emily Snow, giving a brief idea of what the rest of the album might have in store. But don’t be lulled into a false sense of security.
Just as the album is in danger of becoming repetitive dinner party background noise, (you know the ones) You Are The Music rescues us with committed beats, vocal dedication and a somewhat retro disco feel, seamlessly setting M Craft apart from the usual (middle of the road have guitar will play) suspects. I Got Nobody Waiting For Me and the climactic Love Knows How To Fight are lamenting ballads. But unlike so many, not steeped in self imposed pity, instead the self confidence of a man who has practised what he preaches.
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Lucille (where did the love go) is big and punctuates the album successfully with questions and answers about a fast becoming loveless world. A greater use of electric guitar differentiates this from the rest of the album providing Lucille with an urgency of different sorts. If Lucille is big then Snowbird is an epic. Shuffling along through a narrative of a young girl who drops out in favour of cocaine enhanced downward spiral. Again, M Craft can’t help but to tell it how he sees it.
Dragonfly, Sweets and The Soldier are simplistic, basic, stripped down, timeless emotive journeys and see a return to M Crafts ‘folk’ feel. What the music doesn’t always convey the lyrics do. And Teardrop Tattoo is a fantastic example of this beautiful technique. Emotional elegant guitars and singing, combined with dark lyrical content.
But like so many that have gone before him and fallen by the wayside, we’ve been here before. The albums great although not groundbreaking, it’s diverse and inventive but at the same time familiar and repetitive and it might be considered a little too ‘different and downbeat’ for the buying public. After all, isn’t one Jose Gonzalez enough? Well quite frankly no and that comparison shouldn’t be made. Silver and Fire is full of fantastic home made bare bones songs with meaning. They are heart felt, sincere and it shows. It’s not over produced, but retains high production values and let’s be honest; with a voice you can reach out and touch it’d be a shame not to hear it at least once or maybe twice…
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