Straight to the point. £3.50 to Cheap Tack Music, 28 West Lodge, Brimpton Common, Berks will get you this cassette which could be the find of the '83.
Mark T. (no not that one!) has played around Berkshire clubs for a while now, but spotting him live won't have prepared you for this recording. With help from a few other musicians (particularly notable being Tim Hill's alto sax), he's multi-tracked himself on voice, bouzouki, guitar, synth, organ, bodhran, electric guitar and percussion. Drawing influences as diverse as Irish music, blues, free jazz (he's been influenced by Mike Cooper), rock and African music and applying these to a mixture of original and traditional material, he's produced an inspired addition to the '80s spate of roguery.
Perhaps most significantly for the future (Mark is at pains to point out in the accompanying letter that he's only 26), it's the three original songs on here that have the most impact. Particularly I Went To Visit The Rosses (with a fairly rockish lead guitar part) and Mary On The Shore - they're both annoyingly catchy, though I could understand people initially disliking his voice which is an unholy blend of Carthy type folk revival tonalities and Tymon Dogg (which is fine by me).
Instrumentally, a lot of the foundation is provided by bouzouki at full welly, with other instruments layered on (the recording was done by Simon Mayor). There are instrumental tracks to open and close, both Roger Bloomfield - the starter a fairly competent set of the Irish tune, which doesn't prepare you for what's to come; the closer a glorious aural collage.
My only complaint is that (perhaps because I've played it so much), the label keeps falling off! (Get yourself a can of Spraymount, Cheap Tack!). Really, this music should get on vinyl as soon as possible. It is inevitable that the dire state of clubland and the advances in technology should spawn artists who produce their best work in the studio: both Mark T. and the folk world would benefit from him getting a wider public.
I.A.A.
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