Music Arcades: Martin Archer: Ten Studies for Organ

This is a determinedly and charmingly odd release that I got last March direct from Martin. It's a resolutely analogue record, as well. It may be that the Oberheim organ he uses is, as far as I can tell from Wikipedia, actually a digital emulation of an analogue instrument, but the whole aesthetic — it being a vinyl record, released by a Sheffield label even more obscure than Martin's own, with handmade and photocopied packaging, and, oh yes, the sound of it — is analogue turned up to 11.

"The names of the musicians to whom the works are dedicated indicates the flavour of the music," says Martin on his website, regarding the titles of the ten studies, such as Study number 2 for Hans Joachim Roedelius. There are two caveats I'd add to that. Firstly, the LP label has no printing or marks to indicate which is Side 1 and which is Side 2, so when the first track starts you have to guess whether it is Study number 1 - for Terry Riley or Study number 6 - for Markus Popp. I don't know Markus Popp, so it's difficult to be sure of my judgement about which side is which. I think I worked it out from subsequent tracks, and considered marking the label to show which side is which for future reference. But then I decided it would be fun to be uncertain again.

The second caveat is that, irrespective of their dedications, all the tracks bear the unmistakable twitchy signature of Martin Archer himself. And all the better for that, as far as I'm concerned. This is everything that an obscure curio record should be.

I wrote more about Martin last year.

Buy this album direct from him