Mart & Dawes - Bring It Down

Published Saturday 1st July 2017
Mart & Dawes - Bring It Down
Mart & Dawes - Bring It Down

STYLE: Roots/Acoustic
RATING 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
OUR PRODUCT CODE: 164790-25285
LABEL: Proost
FORMAT: CD Mini-album

Reviewed by Tony Cummings

Back in 2010 Cross Rhythms wrote about one of the most intriguing singer/songwriters to emerge for years, Gavin Mart, when he was fronting the band The Saturday Vandals. But then Cross Rhythms kind of lost track of this muso. So when those bastions of alternative worship and arts experimentalists Proost sent us this release we were delighted to re-engage with Mart, particularly as he's now working with talented poet and wordsmith Martin Dawes. Martin is no Robert Browning (one of my favourites) but his insights into the divine light work well against the hoarse-voiced thrashed acoustic vocals and occasional sortes into electronic ambience we have here. "I'd like to think we'd formed a link before the walls come tumbling down" is one of Dawes' best couplets while Mart's passionate vocal on "Peace Together" takes me back to it again and again. I wonder who wrote the line "It's minimum wages/It's wrath of the ages." Mart or Dawes, they work well, really well, together.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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