BILLIE MARTEN-acoustic melancholy in a minor key

[jamestkirk]

BILLIE MARTEN
Acoustic melancholy in a minor key

Ribbons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nt7AIib7hw




RECORDS, REVIEWS
EP | Billie Marten – Ribbons
by For Folk's Sake • 20 June 2014

Billie Marten is already fast becoming a bright, new presence in festivals and venues across the country – and she’s only 14 years old (now 16). Despite this, her songs contain a beauty and world weary maturity that has the ability to leave those twice her age green with envy, and her new EP, Ribbons, is a fine example of balladry and musical tenderness that is mastered to perfection.

Frankly, this EP is a must-hear for fans of gentle, finger-picked melodies and near-whispered vocals. Marten’s delicate voice and guitar style provides an atmosphere similar to both Laura Marling and the Smoke Fairies, but with a power and timid conviction in her deliverance, best shown in the haunting ‘Cross’ and a re-imagined cover of La Roux’s ‘In For The Kill’. The influence of artists like Laura Marling on Marten’s work is obvious, with a subtle crack in her voice and perfect instrumentation that doesn’t drown the listener in unnecessary sound yet provides a fitting backdrop to her every word with a simplistic arrangement of percussion and strings.

Lyrically, Marten is really something special. The title track, ‘Ribbon’, depicts “the secrets of the city” seen through the eyes of the singer and provides the listener with vivid imagery of London shrouded in darkness. She describes the “elusive light shining strange upon my face” and “the train trailing sparks of gold” that adds a surreal and fantastic aura to the otherwise humdrum capital and suggests a maturity far beyond Marten’s years. In ‘Unaware’, she talks of a bittersweet infatuation followed by ‘I’d Rather’, in which she explores the idea of belonging – subject matter that can be interpreted and understood by anyone in today’s world. In all, I thoroughly recommend a listen to this EP and look forward to Marten’s future compositions and presence in the British folk scene.





HEAVY WEATHER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvH4EnCvdfE

Bird
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roFV6eoG3ao

Out Of The Black
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEjzBgMTJhc

Unaware
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sae_3oR66j0

Headlights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juUQ0Gg1lSU

Unaware at Reading
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9fYxuay91k

[jamestkirk]

In for the Kill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8asU5jXzLE4

Billie Marten – As Long As EP

APR 20, 2016 / 8:13 AM / Posted by: Greg / ©earthtotheground.co
http://www.eartothegroundmusic.co/category/acoustic/

Album Review: Billie Marten – As Long As EP

The first time I heard Billie Marten sing was on an Ont Sofa episode. Her clarity was absolutely piercing. Imagine my surprise, then, to hear her opening line on her debut EP that sounded a bit muffled. It didn’t ring true with the clarity that I had come to expect from this young singer songwriter. But then I listened more closely – the understated vocal is intentional and it gets more textured with each listen.

“Roots” is the rhythmic and subtle opener for Marten’s As Long As EP. Take a bit of James Taylor’s syncopated pop melody combined with a great lead vocal… okay, sure, think Carly Simon. Marten’s voice is, really, timeless and beautiful. But it’s the way that she delivers her lines that reminds me of music from the 70s. Her melancholy seeps through each line on “Roots,” an existential reflective piece that’s a great way to start the album.

The second track “Cursive” has gorgeous fingerpicking. When Marten enters with her soft, articulate vocals, the listener cannot help but be emotionally moved. “I will never be… myself.” Again, the song is introspective and conjures images of loneliness and solitude. The revelations of Marten’s heart are gripping. In a world with so many talented young women favoring twee anthems about bebopping between boyfriends, it is a nice change of pace to hear a voice that seems to be crying out and requesting something deeper. In this way (and perhaps somewhat stylistically) she’s in the same class as Lily and Madeline.

“She’s under water again, somebody’s daughter or friend… nobody’s watching… drowning in words so sweet.” Billie Marten is an absolute lyrical poet. The way, then, that she can deliver this powerful lines on “Bird” provide a brilliant mix of tenderness and empathy. It’s obvious that she knows and loves people deeply. To be frank, it’s almost unsettling how gently Marten exposes the heart of her subjects and, ostensibly, herself.

The final title track is “As Long As,” another acoustic song that lives in the melancholic minor chords. The fingerpicking pattern again sets our hearts at ease while also calling us not to be too comfortable. There are even some bluesy inflections on this one that merely scratch the surface of where Marten may go in her career. “We’ll start over again… grow a new soft skin…” The song is a call for renewal and rebirth; it’s about looking back on scars and brokenness, but it seems to be urging listeners to emerge out of it. Stunning and beautiful.

Marten is a welcome change of pace voice in a crowded singer songwriter landscape. Her ability to tell these sorts of sad, tragic, emotional stories is really remarkable. Her talent is really still emerging, which is shocking in and of itself. I’m genuinely looking forward to hearing where she goes from this EP. But there’s no need to rush; I’ll listen to this album several times over. Of course the four songs don’t feel like enough, but they whet my appetite for more from this exquisite songstress.


Milk & Honey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErHsfeJbCCk

[jamestkirk]

'Ribbon' by Billie Marten - Burberry Acoustic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48fggLVbBs4

Fourteen years old here in 2014...seriously talented for someone twice her age. Old soul bluesy minor key acoustic folk and a finger style so nice...