{"id":2236,"date":"2020-01-30T10:59:04","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T15:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/musicalurbanism\/?p=2236"},"modified":"2020-07-21T14:42:35","modified_gmt":"2020-07-21T18:42:35","slug":"martha-and-the-muffins-was-ezo-b-w-trance-and-dance-din-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/musicalurbanism\/2020\/01\/30\/martha-and-the-muffins-was-ezo-b-w-trance-and-dance-din-27\/","title":{"rendered":"Martha and the Muffins \u2013 “Was Ezo” b\/w “Trance And Dance” (DIN 27)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“Was Ezo” b\/w “Trance And Dance”<\/strong>
\nDinDisc Records DIN 27 (UK)<\/strong>
\nReleased on October 30, 1980<\/strong>
\nProduced by Mike Howlett<\/strong><\/p>\n

More than any other Martha and the Muffins single, this feels like the one that got away. Like every single they released in 1980 after “Echo Beach,” this made no impact on the British charts. Martha Ladly, lead singer and songwriter on “Was Ezo,” wasn’t even in the band<\/i> when this came out, having departed in August. As the remaining five members toured North America with her temporary replacement (Jean Wilson), DinDisc and its parent label Virgin had begun to lose faith in Martha and the Muffins. By this point Orchestral Manouevres in the Dark had become the label’s hot performer<\/a>, with “Enola Gay” reaching #8 on the UK charts on September 26 and their second album Organisation<\/i> just released. Also, other new DinDisc recording acts<\/a> had transitioned from artist development to product launch; Ladly herself was being vetted by DinDisc for a solo recording career. When Virgin retrenched briefly from U.S. distribution, concert bookers started to drop out, and the Muffins’ fall\/winter North American tour was reduced from 47 dates to 36. It would have been even shorter had the band not obtained a manager \u2014 a first in the democratically organized art-school band \u2014 in Canadian record man Gerry Young, who fronted his own money to salvage the tour.<\/p>\n

Thus, as a rare showcase for Martha Ladly’s talents, the “Was Ezo” single belonged to no existing band at the time. More’s the pity, because this is a gem in the Martha and the Muffins singles catalogue. On Trance and Dance<\/i>, “Was Ezo” occupies the same spot, sequentially and thematically, as “Saigon” did on Metro Music<\/i>. Yet this tale of village life in medieval Japan (“Children sing a baby salmon song”) is at odds with the modern perspectives of Trance and Dance<\/i>, and Ladly’s concise pop composition struggles to gain traction in the dry ‘rock’ mix that producer Mike Howlett gave the album.<\/p>\n