Martyn: An Introduction

Martyn is a wonderful embodiment of the modern electronic music producer. He has roots in a genre (drum & bass) or two (dubstep), but mostly just makes tracks that simply sound like no one else but himself. What started out as a joke – “I make Martyn music” – has become the best way of describing Martijn Deijkers’ output. Over the course of nearly a decade of producing – and more than two for DJing – Deijkers has consistently pushed forward, always in search of new sounds and new ways of mixing them together.

List the labels that Martyn has released on, and you find yourself with a collection of some of the most important electronic music imprints of the past decade: Hyperdub, Brainfeeder, Ninja Tune, Warp, Tempa, Tectonic, Hotflush, Soul Jazz. And, of course, there’s his own 3024 Records which, in addition to his own music, has released EPs by Julio Bashmore, Jacques Greene and Redshape. It’s worth simply listing labels and artists because it’s one of the easiest ways to indicate just how far and wide Martyn’s taste runs. He sounds at home on Hyperdub as he does on Ninja Tune. Both Bashmore and Redshape make complete sense next to one another – on 3024 at least.

There’s a reason it’s 3024world.com and not just 3024records.com, in case you were wondering. Martyn has created a frame in which to look out at the world in a different way – a place where Altered Natives and Leon Vynehall sit comfortably next to one another. As someone who grew up in the cloistered drum & bass scene, this is no small feat. But Martyn saw earlier than most that drum & bass in the mid-’00s was turning in on itself, recycling the same moves over and over again.

Helping create this world is Erosie, an artist whose work has changed just as much over the past decade as Martyn. His graphic identity for the label has evolved over time, moving from more comic-based forms to the current collages. (Does Leon Vynehall’s release indicate we’re on to the next phase? Only time will tell.)

While Martyn and Erosie enjoy and interact with the outside world, they’re more interested in creating their own. A few years ago Martyn moved from Holland to Washington DC. When asked about the move in an RBMA lecture in 2010, he admitted that “really enjoyed that peripheral feeling, that outside feeling.” Go to places like London or Berlin, absorb the influences, “then go away, go to your own little quiet shack in a big field and do something with all this information.”

Those influences are legion. Like most great DJs, Martyn has a voracious appetite for music (new and old). His interests also veer outside of music as well. He’s a sports enthusiast. He’s also dabbles in charitable initiatives, inviting fans to donate money to the Holistic Life Foundation when they purchased his 2013 single Be My Own Pupil. In short, he’s curious. Which made him the perfect type of artist to guest curate RBMA’s online magazine for a week.