The first few years of British singer-songwriter-guitarist John Martyn’s career are fascinating in terms of artistic progress. Starting out in the clubs playing traditional folk-blues, as displayed on his debut album ‘London Conversation’ in 1967, he quickly moved on to produce a couple of folk-rock albums with his then wife Beverley, before settling on that unique mix of folk, jazz, blues, and experiments with guitar echo and reverb effects that made his 1973 release Solid Air an all-time classic.

If ‘Solid Air’ set a basic template for most of his 70s work, Martyn was not quite content to sit back and recreate that record over and over. 1977’s ‘One World’ builds on his trademark sound, and delves deeper into the atmospheric side of things, while simultaneously retaining a more than adequate focus on songwriting chops and melodic hooks. The single off this LP, Dancin’ provides a nice danceable groove, while there’s some seriously spacey guitar loops in the background that make this so much more than a pop song.

Opening track Dealer is solid hi-fi testing fare, with its delectable rhythms from Sly & The Family Stone drummer Andy Newmark, and renowned fusion table player Keshav Sathe, plus some scintillating moog synthesizer work by Martyn’s label-mate Steve Winwood. The impeccable sound of the album is no doubt due to Island boss Chris Blackwell himself being at the helm, as also a stellar star cast of musicians which includes Danny Thompson of Pentangle and Dave Pegg of Fairport Convention and later Jethro Tull.

The jazzier side of Martyn comes forth on the lovely ballad Couldn’t Love You More, as well as Certain Surprise and the title track. Smiling Stranger stands out as a blues song like no other, with its throbbing bass lines and eastern orchestration perfectly accentuating the enigmatic nature of the titular character. Album closer Small Hours, also the longest track, allows Martyn a free hand to explore ambient guitar soundscapes, winding up a tremendously creative LP that still stands as a highlight of his illustrious catalog.

Rating: ****

Label: Island

Release Date: 1977

Reviewed by Sughosh Varadarajan

Sughosh is a bonafide music nut, having spent over 25 years collecting audio tapes, vinyl and audio CDs. A superfan of The Beatles, The Who, Jethro Tull and XTC, among many others, his collection includes over 700 LPs, plus a similar count of audio CDs. Given half a chance (or even if not), he is most likely to be found attempting to sell fellow music lovers on his personal passion – British and Celtic folk-rock. He can be reached at sughosh@gmail.com