Treasures / Kingdom / The Heritage / Ashes Over Embers / The Washing Hands / Soul Sirens / Ruins / The Giving Hands / All Lovers Learn / Heiress / March Of The Lonely

If subdued acoustic shuffling with a sideorder of hushed restraint is your bag, then you could do a lot worse than picking up the new album from Martin Grech.  Following up his breakthrough record, OPEN HEART ZOO, MARCH OF THE LONELY Is another quietly tender collection of songs pitched somewhere between Elliott Smith and Jeff Buckley.

Martin Grech is all about quiet emotional swooning and tenderly lilting acoustic guitar flourishes; the songs that populate MARCH OF THE LONELY, mood pieces so delicate you sometimes fear they're on the edge of collapse.  A similar experience to listening to the songs of Elliott Smith, Willy Mason or even Nick Drake - MARCH OF THE LONELY works best as a gentle hum in the background, a record that sounds slight and undernourished as times, yet with a haunting presence that yields hidden pleasures and undiscovered gems the more you let it into your life - a record that comes to life when left to wash over you like a cool breeze.

As evidenced by opener TREASURES; Martin Grech is someone who can do subdued majesty like the best of them, a spellbinding song that works its way up from haunting acoustic guitar lines, Grech weaving a certain magic from his fingertips whilst his vocals play with your emotions like Play-Doh. 

If MARCH OF THE LONELY is a record that spellbinds, it's also a record that achieves this with little in the way of cheap tricks or flashy production numbers - this is an album that works its magic slowly and surely, each of the songs here imbued with a sad grace and modest intent. Songs like THE HERITAGE or the sublime RUINS, there are no flashy moves or post-modern ironies here, these are songs that live or die by virtue of their songmanship and raw emotion; Grech injecting each and every moment with the same tender restraint and glorious subdued intensity.

The sombre SOUL SIRENS is a gloriously intense and claustrophobic affair, a song that imagines an even more paranoid sounding Thom Yorke, traces of harps and angels dancing perilously in the background.  All this hushed delicacy can unfortunately sometimes work against him, this stripped back approach and subtlety - all the songs here presented in much the exact same manner; slight finger picked acoustic guitar chords and Martin Grech's subdued vocals barely breaking through at times, for all of MARCH OF THE LONELY's grace and magic, a little variety and the odd left turn wouldn't have gone amiss. 

Make no mistake, MARCH OF THE LONELY is a fragile and at times sublime record; songs steeped in tender emotions and subdued grace. A beautiful record only let down slightly by its lack of ambition and scope.

It’s been four years since Martin Grech first broke the public consciousness, when his debut single, the haunting falsetto track ‘Open Heart Zoo’, was used by Lexus cars in a TV advertising campaign in 2002. The track was written by Martin when he was 19 years old, and released on Interscope through Island Records, and his debut album of the same name followed. Produced by Andy Ross, the album brought comparisons with Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and Jeff Buckley, the latter of whom’s mother personally invited Martin to perform at a tribute gig for Jeff in London. 

In 2005, Martin Grech released his second album ‘Unholy’, which despite taking an altogether darker turn, exploring themes such as insanity, death and heresy, met with more critical acclaim, and was hailed in some quarters as one of the best albums of the year. 

After the amicable split from recording label Island, Martin took off to the remote O Sea Island, a tiny Island in the Thames fifty miles from London, with the idea of making an album of rare folk covers. But some original songs written on a previous tour took on a life of their own on the island, an oasis of isolation in the midst of the capital city, and armed with just firewood, food and guitars, Martin once again joined forces with producer Andy Ross, and surrounded by nothing but shores, began work on what will surely come to be considered Martin’s opus. 

Listening to a mix of Johnny Cash, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Kate Bush and Simon & Garfunkel, and watching Wickerman over and over when there was any spare time, Martin crafted The March Of The Lonely from a journey of isolation and insulation, stripping down the sound from the last album into what can only be described as a contemporary folk album, with each song telling it’s own story. The title track itself takes the point of view a soldier as he walks through a deserted battlefield, singing his lament to himself. 

The single, The Heritage will be available to buy from the end of March 2007. 

Martin Grech

DALI (2002)

Dali

OPEN HEART ZOO (2002)

Here It Comes

Open Heart Zoo

Tonight

Push

Only One Listening

Notorious

Penicillin

Catch Up

Twin

Death Of A Loved One

ILL (Demo Version) (Bonus Track)

OPEN HEART ZOO (2002)

Open Heart Zoo

Storm*

Open Heart Zoo (version)

PUSH (2003)

Push

Bliss

Head Sty

UNHOLY (2005)

Guiltless

Venus

Erosion and Regeneration

I Am Chromosome

An End

Holy Father Inferior

Worldly Divine

Lint

Elixir

GUILTLESS (2005)

Guiltless

Seed of a Seed

Worthy

Guiltless (video)

MARCH OF THE LONELY (2007)

Treasures

Kingdom

The Heritage

Ashes Over Embers

The Washing Hands

Soul Sirens

Ruins

The Giving Hands

All Lovers Learn

Heiress

March Of The Lonely

Martin Grech>www.myspace.com/martingrech

Elliott Smith

Nick Drake

Thom Yorke