Martin Newell - Teatime Assortment (2015)

This recent resurgence in creative strength, along with the success and newfound popularity of Cleaners From Venus, have all led up to ‘Teatime Assortment’. Think of it as a ‘Best Of New Newell’. A true wordsmith, Newell himself has put simply why one might be compelled to take a listen here: “If you’re the sort of person who likes this kind of thing, then this is the sort of thing you’ll probably like.

Since before he was even able to play an instrument, Martin Newell was messing around with home-recordings. Having grown up in the Far East, Newell returned to his home of England at age 13 with just a little 3-inch spool tape-recorder and his first guitar. At age 14 he wrote his first song, not even knowing any chords.

His songwriting continued through his teens and into his 20s, when he purchased a Sony reel-to-reel recorder and 12 string guitar. It is this early songwriting that led him working with a wide variety of musicians, recording in beautiful studios and forming his many projects such as Cleaners From Venus and Brotherhood Of Lizards but it was this early songwriting and recording that led him to find that he was happiest when recording by himself, with minimal equipment. As Newell often says, “Actually, I preferred the demos.”

Having upgraded himself from reel-to-reel to a Tascam Pocketstudio and digitizing some of his archaic recording knowledge, Newell set out to begin home recording again. The tracks on this collection run from 2010 to mid 2014. Some are recordings based loosely on movie themes and soundtracks for imaginary films. Some are instrumentals from a collection called ‘The Late District’, while others are from a recent album, ‘Return To Bohemia’, which saw a small release in England.

TRACKLIST

01 Wake Up and Dream
02 Ghost of Jenni Rainbyrd
03 English Electric
04 Sunken City
05 St. Overdose-on-Sea
06 Secret Stations
07 All the Lights in This House
08 Dear Wesley
09 Shabby Heart
10 The Stars on a Tray
11 Back in the Day
12 Carol For…
13 Essex Girls
14 Saturday Games
15 Twinkle
16 Idol
17 The Lost Summer
18 Sunnytown Way
19 He's Goin' Out with Marilyn
20 The Days of May
21 The Royal Bank of Love
22 The King of the Sixties
23 Time We Talked Again
24 Imaginary Seas