One World

One World followed a sabbatical in which Chris Blackwell invited Martyn and his family to Jamaica in 1976. There Blackwell introduced him to Lee Perry at Black Ark Studios, because the two used echo in similar ways. Back home near Hastings, Martyn made demos in a conservatory hung with black curtains, with two rhythm boxes. Blackwell then offered to produce him at his Berkshire farm, and the album was cut there from July to September 1977 with Steve Winwood, Danny Thompson, John Stevens, Dave Pegg, Rico and others, and Phill Brown as engineer.

Island's mobile unit sat over half a mile from the farmhouse. Speakers were shipped out onto a punt on the lake and microphones took in the water and the geese, an idea Brown said evolved once they were set up rather than coming from any great plan. Small Hours was recorded outdoors in the early hours, with geese and a passing train audible. Big Muff was written with Perry over a breakfast table.

Reception

Martyn toured in late November 1977, and a filmed Old Grey Whistle Test concert at the Collegiate Theatre on 10 January 1978 helped One World reach number 54 on the UK chart, his first charting album. Dancing was the single. NME ranked it the 26th best album of 1977, and Simon Reynolds wrote in The Guardian that its sound was gloriously out of step with the UK rock scene of 1977. It is in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, and it has been cited as an origin of trip-hop. Jah Wobble called Smiling Stranger one of the great moments in dub.