Description

Martoc, aka Martin O’Cuthbert, has been making alien and alienated synth-pop in the UK since the post-punk period. This compilation gathers six songs released on seven-inch EPs during the years 1978-80, and four songs released in the early 2000s. The tracks show a distinctive stylistic unity, inspired by fellow spirits like Fad Gadget, The Normal, John Foxx and Kraftwerk; across the decades Martoc has maintained both his close relationship with his synthesizers and an arms-length relationship with society, resulting in an appealingly quirky and individualistic iciness, informed also by his love of science fiction writers such as J.G. Ballard and Iain Banks. One of the songs included here, ”B.E.M.S.”, was chosen as Record Of The Year by John Lydon in NME in 1978; John Peel was also a supporter. Despite these and other accolades, Martoc and his simultaneously catchy yet disturbing music has hovered resolutely under the radar, an alien craft avoiding detection by an unaware and perhaps unprepared world. Gathered together here, this collection of tracks offers an excellent opportunity investigate an alien explorer. Compiled by Tamotsu Mochida, the author of Industrial Music for Industrial People.