Buried Alive is a big album. It’s big in the sense of capacious – clocking in at 97 minutes it would even be pushing it as an old-fashioned “double live album”, cramming the vinyl with grooves. But it’s also big in the sense of important, because it confirms – if there was any doubt – that Dom Martin is one of the most original and significant roots music artists out there right now.
I say original, because Dom Martin doesn’t just tread the same well-trodden paths as other singer/guitarists. He’s not simply a heavy-riffing blues-rocker, for example, though he chucks some buckets of grit into the likes of ‘Unhinged’, with its Hendrix-twisted riff, and the Rory-like, sock-it-to-‘em rock’n’roll slide guitar of ’12 Gauge’. He doesn’t trot out an endless stream of archetypal guitar solos either, though he does rip it up a bit on both of the above tracks, as well as dialling
up a storm or two amidst the light and shade of ‘Dixie Black Hand’. Oh yeah, and he knows his way around a slow blues as well, as he shows on ‘Lefty 2 Guns’ with its plethora of licks.
But still, Martin’s modus operandi extends beyond this familiar kinda rockin’ fare much of the time. For a start, this is a live album on which Martin devotes over half the running time to an acoustic set that finds him weaving tapestries of beautiful, mesmerising guitar as the backdrop for some dark and dangerous tales, told in his sonorous voice that often veers towards a bass pitch that also sets him apart from the herd.
The first of these acoustic excursions, a medley of ‘Easy Way Out’ and ‘Belfast Blues’, is a double whammy of death and danger, set to rippling, coruscating guitar picking that’s quasi-Celtic in the first half, then more Delta bluesy in the second, as it exerts a magnetic pull for over 11 minutes. It’s astonishing – and by no means unique.
For example, the following segueway of ‘Hello In There’ and ‘The Fall’ glitters, glistens and shifts like a kaleidoscope of silver and gold, incorporating some classical Spanish stylings, while Martin quietly lays out some wistful reflections. And ‘Hell For You’/’Mercy’ shimmers and sparkles in relaxed fashion even as the Dom fella muses bitterly that “There’s a hell for you, baby”, in tones that carry a John Martyn-like undercurrent of languid smokiness.
In fact Martin’s voice is as important an instrument as his guitar throughout, whether he's toting an acoustic or an electric. His rich groan takes on an emphatic, determined tone to go with the twanging blues of the opening ‘Daylight I Will Find’, underlining the resilience of the refrain that “It’s been a long old road to ruin / Daylight I will find”. Then on ‘Government’ the simple, folk-ish tune leaves him space to convey both weariness and disgust. And ‘Buried In The Hail’ ventures even further into the darkness with sparse, bluesy twanging and an atmospheric vocal to go with the evocative lyrics.
There are counterpoints to the downbeat contemplation though. ‘Howlin’’ trips along merrily to develop into a full blown guitar rag, before taking a sharp turn into electric blues explorations worthy of the title, then exploding into some ruff’n’tuff riffing. Meanwhile ‘Belfast Blues’ is dramatic and cinematic with lines like “I’ve been shot, stabbed and burned out with those Belfast blues again”, and “Well I grabbed that shovel and I dug that hole / I threw myself in and I watched myself go,” but the drama is soundtracked by a fierce stomp and jagged guitar as much as by quiet menace. And then the likes of ‘Unhinged’ and ’12 Gauge’ arrive to raise the tempo and the volume.
Is there anyone else out there doing what Dom Martin does? I don’t think so. He's out there on his own, doing his own singular thing and doing it masterfully. Get Buried Alive, and get yourself wrapped up and cocooned in his performance.
Buried Alive is released by Forty Below Records on 13 December, and can be ordered here.
I say original, because Dom Martin doesn’t just tread the same well-trodden paths as other singer/guitarists. He’s not simply a heavy-riffing blues-rocker, for example, though he chucks some buckets of grit into the likes of ‘Unhinged’, with its Hendrix-twisted riff, and the Rory-like, sock-it-to-‘em rock’n’roll slide guitar of ’12 Gauge’. He doesn’t trot out an endless stream of archetypal guitar solos either, though he does rip it up a bit on both of the above tracks, as well as dialling
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| Dom Martin - out there on his own Pic by Tony Cole |
But still, Martin’s modus operandi extends beyond this familiar kinda rockin’ fare much of the time. For a start, this is a live album on which Martin devotes over half the running time to an acoustic set that finds him weaving tapestries of beautiful, mesmerising guitar as the backdrop for some dark and dangerous tales, told in his sonorous voice that often veers towards a bass pitch that also sets him apart from the herd.
The first of these acoustic excursions, a medley of ‘Easy Way Out’ and ‘Belfast Blues’, is a double whammy of death and danger, set to rippling, coruscating guitar picking that’s quasi-Celtic in the first half, then more Delta bluesy in the second, as it exerts a magnetic pull for over 11 minutes. It’s astonishing – and by no means unique.
For example, the following segueway of ‘Hello In There’ and ‘The Fall’ glitters, glistens and shifts like a kaleidoscope of silver and gold, incorporating some classical Spanish stylings, while Martin quietly lays out some wistful reflections. And ‘Hell For You’/’Mercy’ shimmers and sparkles in relaxed fashion even as the Dom fella muses bitterly that “There’s a hell for you, baby”, in tones that carry a John Martyn-like undercurrent of languid smokiness.
In fact Martin’s voice is as important an instrument as his guitar throughout, whether he's toting an acoustic or an electric. His rich groan takes on an emphatic, determined tone to go with the twanging blues of the opening ‘Daylight I Will Find’, underlining the resilience of the refrain that “It’s been a long old road to ruin / Daylight I will find”. Then on ‘Government’ the simple, folk-ish tune leaves him space to convey both weariness and disgust. And ‘Buried In The Hail’ ventures even further into the darkness with sparse, bluesy twanging and an atmospheric vocal to go with the evocative lyrics.
There are counterpoints to the downbeat contemplation though. ‘Howlin’’ trips along merrily to develop into a full blown guitar rag, before taking a sharp turn into electric blues explorations worthy of the title, then exploding into some ruff’n’tuff riffing. Meanwhile ‘Belfast Blues’ is dramatic and cinematic with lines like “I’ve been shot, stabbed and burned out with those Belfast blues again”, and “Well I grabbed that shovel and I dug that hole / I threw myself in and I watched myself go,” but the drama is soundtracked by a fierce stomp and jagged guitar as much as by quiet menace. And then the likes of ‘Unhinged’ and ’12 Gauge’ arrive to raise the tempo and the volume.
Is there anyone else out there doing what Dom Martin does? I don’t think so. He's out there on his own, doing his own singular thing and doing it masterfully. Get Buried Alive, and get yourself wrapped up and cocooned in his performance.
Buried Alive is released by Forty Below Records on 13 December, and can be ordered here.
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