Toby Martin | New Solo Album 'I Felt The Valley Lifting' + Documentary - Out Now!
Credit: Cameron Emerson-Elliott
Revered Sydney artist Toby Martin today releases his third solo album, I Felt The Valley Lifting! Written while living with his young family in Slaithwaite -- a post-industrial village in northern England -- and made in collaboration with local folk, rock and Persian musicians, the frontman and songwriter for Sydney band Youth Group draws from his newfound love of British Isles folk music and merges it with the kind of fuzzed-out, off-kilter indie rock that obsessed him in his youth. To coincide with the release, Martin has unveiled the album documentary; a deep-dive into the themes, landscapes, collaborations & stories that traversed through time, to be reimagined on the thought-provoking I Felt The Valley Lifting.
"There was something very magical about making this record. The songs seemed to come, unbidden, from the earth of the place I was living in. And we as a band just clicked, even though we were from very different places and walks of life. I recorded this just before leaving England, after living there for four years. It was a swan song. Listening to it now I am immediately transported to that period in my life - that place and those people. I am really proud of it. I know everyone says this at release time, but I think it's my best work. And I am really, really excited to share it." – Toby Martin
I Felt The Valley Lifting was recorded and mixed at Yellowarch Studios in Sheffield, UK, with Colin Elliot (Jarvis Cocker, Richard Hawley). In much the same way that his previous record, Songs From Northam Avenue, was made with local musicians from Bankstown, for I Felt The Valley Lifting Martin put together a diverse ensemble of musicians from the local Slaithwaite area, lovingly dubbed the Colne Valley Players. Consisting of MohammadReza Beladi on dammam (drum), ney (flute) and neyanban (Iranian bagpipes); George Harrington on drums; Julia Morgan on tin whistle, flute and backing vocals; Chris Ruffoni on bass, trumpets, piano and backing vocals; and Sarah Tym on violin and Northumbrian bagpipes, their eclectic contributions can be heard across the album’s nine free-spirited tracks.
The result is a heady mix of freak folk explorations, freewheeling melodicism, molten white noise and, in true Toby Martin style, sharply observed story-telling. Equal parts tender and abrasive, challenging and inviting, moving and slyly funny, I Felt The Valley Lifting sits comfortably alongside acts like Neutral Milk Hotel, The Decemberists and The Mountain Goats in your record collection, while also possibly being the only record made this millennium to use the word “widdershins”.
Martin is perhaps best known for his role as the lead singer of much-loved Sydney rock band Youth Group, with whom he has released five studio albums, toured the world, won an ARIA, and reached #1 on the ARIA Singles Chart with ‘Forever Young’. The band’s most recent album, 2019’s Australian Halloween was feature album on Double J and named by the station as one of its top records of the year. The Sydney artist has also released two solo albums, Love’s Shadow (2012) and the most recent of which, Songs From Northam Avenue (2017), was inspired by stories from the Sydney suburb of Bankstown and featured musicians based in Western Sydney from a diverse range of backgrounds. Martin is also a historian of music, especially country music, and is currently based in Sydney where he works as a Lecturer in Contemporary Music at the Conservatorium of Music.
Toby Martin - I Felt The Valley Lifting
Album out now through Ivy League Records
Buy/stream here
Toby Martin - I Felt The Valley Lifting tracklisting:
1. Strange Fish
2. German Sea
3. Dark Red Blood
4. Town Gossip
5. Linthwaite Houdini
6. Bird Boy
7. Buddleia and Vomit
8. Blackmoorfoot
9. Pole Moor
