Jon Gomm – Hypertension

I first became aware of Jon Gomm at a free acoustic festival at Peasholm Park in Scarborough where he played in the middle of the lake where the mini battle ships fight all through the summer, he was in a pagoda in the fading light it was beautiful. Jon Gomm is an acoustic guitarist and songwriter of great talent and creativity. I’m reviewing his debut album hypertension as I’m still waiting for his second effort, which seems to be on its way for a while. I have my fingers crossed for a release this year.

Hypertension is full of amazing acoustic guitar performances that use so many techniques I haven’t seen anyone else pull off as well, or even at all in some cases. All the music on this CD is done live and I have seen this first hand in the flesh several times, and been in awe on each occasion. Gomm mics up his guitar so that you can hear tiny little scratches and hits to the body. This adds rhythm and strange almost synthesizer sounds at times. Gomm is all over his guitar smacking it up and hammering the fret board with all his fingers. The songs aren’t let down one little bit by all the guitar virtuoso stylings. They only add to the beauty of these songs.

Hypertension starts off with a cover of Wait In Vain by Bob Marley or Annie Lenoux who ever you know of better. This is a great example of how he interprets songs and adds strange and wonderful techniques to bring the songs alive. There is also a wonderful cover version of High & Dry by Radiohead here too, that I’m very fond of. The original material is brilliant and is full of brooding echo-drenched vocals full of emotion and depth. Stupid Blues and Hey Child stand out particularly. Check out his videos to see him in action. Then see him live and ask him nicely how the new record is coming on. Ace stuff.