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Review: 'Bramah, Martin'
'The Battle of Twisted Heel'   

-  Album: 'The Battle of Twisted Heel' -  Label: 'Tiny Global Productions'
-  Genre: 'Folk' -  Release Date: '3rd June 2016'

Our Rating:
Martin Bramah is – and will likely forever be – renowned as a founder member of the mighty Fall. But since his departure from the band, way back in 1979 (and a second stint with the band between 1989 and 1990), he’s done a fair bit (much of it in collaboration with other former Fall personnel – well, there are plenty of them): Blue Orchids, with original Fall keyboardist Una Baines, have occupied a fair amount of his time, but then there was also the short-lived Thirst with former Fall drummer Karl Burns, and in the new millennium, Factory Star have been keeping him reasonably occupied.

A number of Factory Star’s songs were, in fact, developed from what had originally been intended as a Martin Bramah solo LP. It’s only now that this album gets to see the light of day, and it stands in its own right without an acquaintance with Factory Star’s material. That said, it is interesting to compare and contrast on occasion.

The songs here are fundamentally acoustic folk tunes, augmented with shakers and flute behind the slightly psychedelic lyrics. ‘Stone Tumbling Stream’, a ramshackle roustabout on ‘Enter Castle Perilous’ is presented here as a more mystical folk song with a hit of Syd Barret about it, and the jangling indie take on post punk of ‘The Fall of Great Britain’ is here a banjo-led country song, and Bramah comes on more like a troubadour protests singer than an elder statesman of indie rock.

It’s a most English record, not only in terms of its folk roots, and with Bramah’s unashamedly northern accent integral to the delivery, but also in its references to green hills and getting his washing done. Buy turns trippy folk and kitchen sink, with a few dashes of The Kinks sprinkled in to give a tidy pop slant, it’s quirky and far too grounded to be pretentious.
  author: Christopher Nosnibor

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Bramah, Martin - The Battle of Twisted Heel