After
Sunday's Child,
John Martyn took an extended break from studio recording. By late 1975, feeling he was close to going "completely round the bend," he had also stopped touring. To put some distance between himself and the pressures of the business and to recoup his creative energies, he went to Jamaica. There, after meeting dub producer
Lee "Scratch" Perry,
Martyn sat in on sessions by other artists and contributed to
Burning Spear's
Man in the Hills.
Martyn returned to the U.K. reinvigorated and began recording One World in summer 1977. Produced by Island boss
Chris Blackwell and featuring
Dave Pegg,
Morris Pert,
John Stevens,
Danny Thompson, and
Steve Winwood, among others, One World combines the experimental tendencies of 1973's
Inside Out and the more conventional song structures of
Sunday's Child. While tracks like "Couldn't Love You More," "Smiling Stranger," and "Certain Surprise" display some continuity with the rootsy, jazzy folk-rock of
Martyn's previous albums, this record has a stronger commercial feel than his earlier work, crossing over into pop territory. Especially memorable in that regard is the electrified swagger of "Big Muff," a number co-written by
Perry that would become one of
Martyn's live staples. But One World's understated explorations of mood are even more compelling; the experimental nature of dub -- of which
Perry was a legendary exponent -- clearly resonated with
Martyn. Since the early '70s, he had displayed a keen ear for sonic manipulation, using effects like Echoplex and a phase shifter to craft drifting, hypnotic textures. Here, the lazy title track and the synth-pulsing "Small Hours" exemplify
Martyn's knack for mesmerizing, smoky grooves. Those looser, atmospheric numbers notwithstanding, most of One World signals the more slick pop direction
John Martyn would take in the '80s starting with
Grace & Danger (and with increasingly mixed results). [In 2005, Island released a deluxe edition of One World that included five live tracks and ten alternate versions of songs from the initial release.] ~ Wilson Neate