Back in 2002 I bought the album Open Heart Zoo by Martin Gretch having heard a song of his somewhere, Dave might remember where (Hi Dave). Back then I thought it was a rather brilliant album. I have no idea where my original copy is, I may have sold it, given it away, lost it or it could be in a box somewhere, it’s a mystery, a rather boring one, but a mystery nonetheless.
Today I was in a charity shop and there was a copy sitting on the shelf, which was a delightful surprise as I had pretty much forgotten about it. I listened to the whole album on the drive home from work and I can confirm my original assessment was correct, it is rather brilliant. If I were to take Radiohead and Peter Gabriel and put them in a blender, it would make a terrible mess and I would probably end up in jail, however, the sound that would result would be a new flavour that encompassed both.
Because I can’t really rely on Dave to remember I looked it up and discovered that the track “Open Heart Zoo” (written when he was 15 years old) was featured on a Lexus advert on British TV in 2002. This sounds vaguely familiar so let’s go with that.
As far as I can tell there was only 1 video created for tracks from this album, for the title track, here it is:
Tracklist:
| Here It Comes | 5:02 |
| Open Heart Zoo | 5:21 |
| Dali | 5:38 |
| Tonight | 5:07 |
| Push | 5:00 |
| Only One Listening | 4:51 |
| Notorious | 4:55 |
| Penicillin | 4:47 |
| Catch Up | 3:46 |
| Twin | 4:41 |
| Death Of A Loved One | 6:30 |
| (silence) | 10:30 |
| Ill (Demo) | 3:51 |
Now there is an issue with Martin, he hasn’t released anything for bloody ages. As far as I can tell he has had an album ready for release for at least 2 years but, for a number of reasons, is unable to release it. There are 2 albums I’ve never listened to though, the last one released in 2007, and I can’t decide whether to get them or listen to them online as there is no vinyl version of anything. I’ll probably do a little of both.
I listen to a lot of music and I have difficulty understanding why Martin Grech isn’t a huge star when others, whose output is quite sub-standard, are. I do see him guesting on a few things but, for reasons unknown to me, he hasn’t released anything for 12 years. Maybe that is the roadblock to superstardom, and let’s be honest, I probably wouldn’t be as keen if he was, fickle music fan that I am.
Here is the album, if you have the time, have a listen, I genuinely think it is worth it and I will soon be doing a best albums of 2002 list, this will be in it.
Speaking of guesting on some tracks, give this one a go, it’s a corker!
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