Five Tracks: Martsman

Martsman's one of the artists that I personally have listened to, laughing at those who think that all this DAD rocks to is four-to-the-floor rave ant

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Martsman's one of the artists that I personally have listened to, laughing at those who think that all this DAD rocks to is four-to-the-floor rave anthems. Our pallette is way deeper than that, and we have producers like Martsman to thank. I believe I first ran into Martsman on Internets forums for drum & bass, and in my previous positions had the pleasure of receiving and reviewing music that he both produced and released via netlabel Plainaudio. Many might write off his music (via drum & bass or other tempos) as leftfield, but what he's been about is creative expression, as well as experimentation in sound. Electronic music is far more than sweat and cheesy melodies, and you can hear it in the scores of releases Martsman has put out, be them with Hospital's sister imprint Med School, Warm Communications, Offshore, or Alpha Cut, including his recently-released trek into the 130BPM zone on Pushing Red.

For his Five Tracks, Martsman helps us peer into what makes him tick. You've got interesting drum & bass from Sileni and Source Direct, some Autechre and Pink Floyd, and an Alvin Lucier experiment that we'd not known existed. Get weird, but get educated; here are Martsman's Five Tracks.

Sileni - "Twitchy Droid Leg"

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Totally out-of-the-box drum & bass, unlike anything heard before. A personal revelation for me at a time when I started to lose faith in drum & bass.

Hokusai - "Red Lights"

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Autechre - "Outpt"

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Two main elements of this tune continue to fascinate me: firstly, the chords that seem to vary constantly and subtlely, secondly the waterish sounding implosionesque effect every couple of bars throughout the track - simple and effective.

Pink Floyd - "A Saucerful Of Secrets"

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I was deeply impressed by Pink Floyd's Ummagumma album when I first listened to it. It stands out pretty much from the rest of their work. "A Saucerful Of Secrets" in particular shaped my likings towards psychedelic rock.

Alvin Lucier - "I Am Sitting In A Room"

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One of the most mesmerizing pieces of Lucier. A 45 minutes recording of the artist's voice being consumed by the room he's sitting in.

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