Danseparc - Martha And The Muffins

Martha And The Muffins are probably best known as a one hit wonder band for the classic new wave track Echo Beach in 1980, covered a few years later by a well-padded Toyah Wilcox - sans the Wilcox, of course. As is typical of many perceived to be one hit wonders though, there was more to their story.

Martha And The Muffins hailed from Ontario, Canada and via a rather convoluted line-up consisted of Martha Johnson, Mark Gane, Nick Kent and Jocelyne Lanois by the time of third album Danseparc in 1982, released the following year. Danseparc was also produced by future U2 knob twiddler Daniel Lanois, brother of Muffin Jocelyne. This reissue of Danseparc has been remastered by Peter J.Moore at the E.Room in Toronto, and it sounds fantastic.

The overriding sense of rhythm and style I get from this album is that it would fit in well with both Spandau Ballet's Chant No.1, anything from Pelican West by Haircut 100 and Klacto Vee Sedstein by Blue Rondo A La Turk, although this album came a couple of years after all of those. It's very funky but with plenty of synths layered over the top and you can hear bit of Talking Heads in there as well.

Lyrically though, things aren't quite as happy as the music suggests. The Muffins really deal with isolation and urban decay, even the afore-mentioned Echo Beach was about escaping office life for a bit of fun. The contrast is the attraction here though, although the slow burning Sins Of The Children is quite possibly the highlight of this album for me.

This album includes the 12" mixes of both Danseparc and it's percussion heavy b-side The Dangerous Machines as well as a live version of Sins Of The Children, a slightly more mournful version than its album compatriot.

It's sad that it's taken so long, but finally some great music from the last real decade of musical innovation is being re-released. About time too…