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86 of 95 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ok Computer:Re-Boot., 27 Jun 2002
We've been waiting for this.The scene: Your living room.A silver Lexus streaks through the streets of Rome.Nice Car.The music in the background is nicer
Smooth,calming, undulating orchestral sweeps.What is it ? Mozart? Beethoven?....then suddenly a jarring,psudo-electronic,operatic,hermaphrodite voice comes out of no-where..Is that Tom Yorke? can't be...too feminine...all in tune.It ends,your bemused.Such is life.Such is Martin Grech.
What you've been listening to is the title track from his debut album,Open Heart Zoo,and from familiar beginings it turns into something half-alien,half vague recollection.It kinda remind me of one of those weird polish arthouse cartoon soundtracks you find on C4 at 4am on a wet wednesday morning,except it's not just listenable-it's starkly beautiful,strangly addictive
I have to admit I've heard only three tracks from this Album, this one,the Floyd-esque German industrial metal debut single Dali and the ambient,etherial Irish rasps of Catch up(Ibiza Chillout anthem anyone?), but I've have to say I'm already salivating at it's potential.
This Aylesbury lad is only 19, but he's making music a scale of which Pink Floyd in their pomp would be proud of.Apparently he cites Radioheads "the Bends" as his main inspiration,and you can definately see the comparisons...it's Kid-A style music with a real direction and the orchestral scale of standout O.K computer tracks such as Paranoid Android and let down, and yet subtle hints of industrial metal/Ambient trance can be heard creeping in.This is what Amnesiac tried but failed to be.
There are also parts which remind me in it's starkness with Trickys Debut "Maxinque",it has that subtle techno chillout tone, and an alarmingly familiar promo photo with the heavy green Eyeliner,German uniform worn by the Tricky of that time.
I have a real feeling that critics will love this album,the tracks I've heard are just...soooooo different,So fresh.It's gonna take a while to get into the publics head too...this is not a first listen and you will love album....But it sounds like a grower of the highest order.It also sounds like a British youth rock movement waiting to happen,on par with "Whats the story" or "Never mind the Bollocks".Pop Idol it is not.
I just prey you somehow get to hear parts if not all of this album,and that this dosn't become a cult record that no-one but fanatics will hear.Somehow,I doubt it.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A strange mixture with moments of brilliance, 12 May 2007
Upon this album's release, Martin Grech's best known work so far was (inevitably) a track which aroused interest because of its use in a car advertisement. Consequently, most prospective buyers of the record will have heard 'Open Heart Zoo' the song - it's a lush, soaring piece which boasts almost operatic vocals. Certainly, it seems indicative of an eye-catching talent. Yet the namesake debut album is, if not necessarily contradictory of this impression, a very different affair. Indeed, the introduction to opening track 'Here It Comes', with its jagged snatches of guitar and frog-like vocal snippets, recalls Korn. When the song kicks in, it thankfully becomes something more tuneful. However, it's still a radical departure from the title track, and anyone basing their expectations of the album on that piece of music might be (perhaps unpleasantly) surprised.
Grech's vocals often echo either the bombastic style of Matt Bellamy or the heart-rending emotion of Thom Yorke. The ability of his voice to reach such dizzy heights is an outstanding talent, and it's this which makes the album notable. Lyrically, 'Open Heart Zoo' is far from a masterpiece; in a post-nu-metal world, the textbook angst of 'Push' ('I am so stupid, so pathetic/Beat me into the ground') sounds clumsy and juvenile. It's the near-unbearable, haunting atmosphere created by tracks like 'Open Heart Zoo' and 'Tonight' that suggest this may well be the work of a tortured genius.
It isn't easy listening, and at times even feels unnerving - the warped singing and fractured piano on 'Twin', for example. In places, listening almost seems like an intrusion on a personal attempt to come to terms with pain, as on 'Catch Up' and 'Death of a Loved One'. These vulnerable moments showcase Grech at his best; in comparison, the heavier crunch of tracks such as 'Dali' sounds largely irrelevant.
The fashion in which we're asked to veer between epic beauty and pounding metal from track to track, while daring and eclectic, means this won't be to everyone's taste. 'Open Heart Zoo' is a confusing album; you're never quite sure whether you're listening to the birth of a major new talent or an unsuccessful and messy attempt to cram as many musical genres as possible into one place. Grech appears to be still in the process of discovering his musical identity. This is no bad thing; the strong sense of an individual emerging is what lifts the album above the crowd. It remains for time to tell whether Martin Grech really is an outstanding musician, or a chancer accidentally hitting touches of brilliance.
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7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
No, really, 26 Jul 2005
Ever noticed how every single album that's ever been released, ever, gets the five star treatment on Amazon? On a site where anyone who is anyone can review, this is bound to happen, no matter how good or bad something is considered to be, there'll ALWAYS be someone who disagrees. Consequently, it's hard to rely on customer feedback.But seriously, this is a five star album. I consider it to be the best bits of Jeff Buckley, Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails all rolled into one. The lyrics are pure misery ("I seek medical attention for this disease in my blood"/"I am so useless, so pathetic"), one tends to wonder just what sort of life this young man has led. Only nineteen at release, sixteen when recording began, it seems he's suffered through plane crashes, terminal diseases, public scourn and judging by "Notorious", it seems his life has been one of crime. Hope he doesn't write from experience. Eitherway, the lyrics compliment the music perfectly: Extremely intense and melancholic but simmering in something almost alien. Every track stands out, but good sir Grech seems to have divided the album neatly into three sections. Section one is a real roller coaster of emotions: Opener "Here it Comes" is a hypercharged electro saunter through a graveyard of dying robots. "Open Heart Zoo" is the one everyone knows from the Lexus ad...operatic, with a cataclysmic explosion at the end, a wall of fuzzed up sound that engulfs the listener. The end of section one, "Dali", is extremely impressive: Heavier than an overweight golem, running in about fourteen directions at once, Martin practices pretty much every trick in the metal guitarists handbook and still manages an ambient chorus. The second section is one of optimism. "Tonight" used to remind me of hospitals, but now I see street corners bathed in darkness, lone romantics observing distant traffic with tears streaming down their faces. "Push" wouldn't sound oout of place on Jeff Buckley's "Grace", it's so big that the biggest stadium in the world couldn't contain it. This size is maintained up 'til "Penicillin" - epic stadium rock. Then Grech enters the third section, that of maudlin funereal piano led balladry. Yes it's depressing, but somehow simultaneously uplifting... So yeah, definately a five star album. Seriously, it is.
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