Martin John Henry – The Other Half of Everything

After the disappointing split of De Rosa on the back of their excellent second album Prevention, this first solo offering by frontman Martin John Henry is a welcome addition to the local musical landscape. That said, it takes a good spin or two to acclimatise to The Other Half of Everything. De Rosa themselves were hardly averse to some of the ol’ indie electro trimmings, but at times here, Henry fully embraces such pleasures.

Span is a multi-tiered, lazer disco mini-epic whose early doors appearance is as revitalising as it is unexpected. It rubs shoulders with I Love Map which finds Henry on more familiar grand acoustic territory and sets up the varying tones of the album. Thankfully, Henry’s reliable song-writing chops act as a steadying counterweight to the experimental leanings, allowing him to colour these eleven nebulous offerings to their respective edges. Marvellous stuff.

You can stream the album here.