Performing mainly on bouzouki he manages to make the instrument thoroughly at home amongst a collection of traditional and not so traditional instruments on his new album "The Room" on Waterfront Records (WF047). The record divided into two sides, his solo side where he is joined by Tim Hill longtime compatriot of Mark's, having played as part of 'The Brickbats' the two-piece who plat alongside Mark on his albums, and Steve Hooker of The Shakers and Boz And The Bozmen who adds his bottleneck guitar playing to the festivities. Dave Harching plays the bass.
The combined effect gives you a sort of musical trip around Europe takin in France, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, but the influences never threaten to clutter the sound, indeed they enhance they enhance the whole feel of the thing.
I feel Mark is one of those musicians who sticks to his guns and writes and plays the way he wants to, irrespective of Trends and is the better man for it. His adaptation of Jimi Hendrix's "Castles Made Of Sand" demonstrates Mark's ability to perform infecxtious (sic) covers that he stamps his own mark (pardon the pun) on.
Sean McGhee
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"Folk Roots" May '90
MARK T. with TIM HILL The Room
Waterfront WF 047
Totally uncanny! Much has shaped the musical mind of Mark T. since his shyly released debut tape - however long ago that was - and given us as an individualist.
No-one else is likely to follow his twisting path, for The Room is nothing short of harrowing. The creation of Eurofolk ambitions and unfettered jazz leanings, the child is, at once, like its parents but also totally different.
Whatever forces shaped the opening Butter And Guns were so complex and frenetic that it's a piece that takes hours to come to terms with. Both pointed and disturbing the form is one big black hole from which monotone and harmony drift in no regular pattern.
Indeed, it isn't until halfway through the Down Home Side that any regular form appears - a vicious acoustic stab at Hendrix's Castles Made Of Sand. The images both T. and Hill form in their confused melodic, half-light are nothing short of nightmarish, 'fiery tongues were rolled out bleeding,' 'where dentists pulled the truth from liars…' so it goes!
Among the more obvious Grecian and French concoctions on the second World Wide Side however, things are no less settling. Who's That Knocking At Your Door? Could be big brother or a friendly neighbour, I wouldn't care to find out - keep it locked, mate. Even the dances are whirled and whipped out of all shape, into amorphous masses with viscosity which seems to know no limit.
There's an agitation here that nags and won't go away - a folksy soundtrack for a psycho thriller. Remote cousin of Gabriel Yacoub's Elementary Level Of Faith, Mark T.'s creation is a dark atmospheric disc. Attractive and compelling, it is not for fainthearts. Distressing but immense.
Simon Jones