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| Martina
Topley-Bird
Martina Topley-Bird
After appearing on four Tricky records, Martina decided to call it quits after 1998's Angels With Dirty Faces. For the first time in her musical career, Martina started writing her own material and her debut CD began to take shape. In 2003, Quixotic was released in the U.K. with critical praise coming from respected publications including NME ("Her voice is still astonishing: husky yet fragile, sweet and yet sustained with murky experience like an angel getting wasted in a Bristol Squat,") MAXIM ("For a solo debut Quixotic is a classic. If you can't afford this album, steal it") and Independent ("Quixotic is as original and authentic as anything you'll hear this year. This is an astonishing record.") Thanks in part to this critical acclaim, and just days after its U.K. commercial release, Quixotic was nominated for a Mercury Prize (U.K. equivalent of a Grammy nomination) as one of the year's finest albums. Although Quixotic failed to capture the award, it brought a new level of attention to Martina. The songs didn't just capture the same vibe from her Tricky years. Instead, it became clear that the twenty-six year-old Martina had evolved into a multitalented singer who could effectively tackle many different musical fashions. Perhaps most importantly, for the first time, it showcased her ability as a songwriter and producer. Although the American underground has always had a love affair with Martina's voice, Quixotic never did make it out domestically. Fortunately, this summer, Palm will release a re-designed, re-sequenced and renamed (now entitled, Anything) version of this record for America. Renaming the album, Anything, pays respect to its most powerful track. This title track starts the record off and features a combination of sultry vocals, acoustic guitar and warm electronica. The call-and-response chorus, "I don't want anything but you / I don't need anything but you," strikes a chord for the passion that comes through Martina's vocals - she's crying out. This mesmerizing song of longing is the perfect reintroduction to Martina. Anything is a journey, traversing from guitar rock to pop, from crisp electronica to dim and affecting ballads and from old time soul to jazz and blues. Anything is full of glorious moments - from the epic sweeping strings and choral arrangements of "I Still Feel;" the abrasive Bassey-like vocals and broken beats of "Too Tough To Die;" to the bluesy, deep-south twang of the whimsical "Lullaby." Tricky makes appearances on "Ragga" and "Ilya," duets that instantly bring you back to the glory days of this couple. "Need One" is a fascinating track because it features a massive chorus and the raw power of Josh Homme and Mark Lanegan of Queens Of The Stoneage. This track is devilishly good radio pop and proves that Martina isn't afraid to drift into the mainstream. Martina grew up in Lisson Grove, London, in a large extended family - she was one of eight children and step children (Her father died when she was very young and her mother remarried soon thereafter.) With so many people around, Martina was exposed to the arts from the beginning. One of her early musical influences came in the way of her older sister who worked at New York City's legendary Ritz nightclub. At a young age Martina frequently made trips to New York to stay with her sister and check out the NYC rock scene. Rock has always played a big part in Martina's life and she cites bands like Guns N' Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Fishbone as some of her biggest influences. This may come as a surprise considering that Martina is known for such delicate music, but truth be told, she wasn't actively pursuing a career in music. Martina was a fifteen-year-old girl without formal vocal training who had aspirations to be an oceanographer. This path just seemed more practical to her than a career in music. However, it was at this early age that she had a life-changing encounter with Adrian Thaws (A.K.A. Tricky,) a man who just happened to be a rapper with up and coming trip-hop act Massive Attack. Martina first met Tricky in 1991, while she was sitting on a wall outside of his house in Bristol smoking a cigarette. Tricky started chatting her up about music and invited her to sing on some material he was working on. Two years later, this chance encounter resulted in the birth of their child, Maisie, the first Tricky single, "Aftermath," and later the LP, Maxinquaye. From a chance encounter on a wall, to hit records - it all appears to have been predetermined. This is what Martina will tell you. Most will be familiar with Martina's gloriously haunting vocals on such cult-classic Tricky albums, including the now legendary Maxinquaye (1994) and Pre-Millennium Tension (1996.) These were undeniably Tricky's albums, but in many ways they largely belonged to Martina. Whether it is the high energy "Black Steel" or timeless lullabies such as "Overcome," "Ponderosa," "Makes Me Wanna Die" and "Christiansands," Martina often (unintentionally) became the focal point of each track. It wasn't that Martina blew listeners away with her powerful vocal hooks - that's certainly not her style. Instead, Martina drew attention from her eloquently fragile, prosaic delivery that added an exclamation point to every spoken word. After listening to Anything, one comes to the realization that
despite comparisons with both classic and contemporary female vocalists,
Martina's voice is very much her own. Anything takes us back to
1994 when we first heard her voice. Back then it was exciting, fresh
and new. Today, Martina emerges from a cocoon - reborn. Her evolution
as a singer takes us on a new and very personal journey. This is
a voice that we never want to be without again. |
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For more info contact: Sioux Zimmerman © 2006 Magnum PR & Management
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