(Bella Union/Remote Control)

Josh Martinez is quite possibly insane. Holed up in a log cabin in Canada with a shotgun making hip-hop music, after a listen to Buck Up Princess you may in fact need a lie down as you may be left scratching your head thinking ‘what the fuck’, but for many it will be well worth the effort.

When you are composing an album you probably have many thoughts enter your mind for songs, not many people would record them all, but here is a brief overview of Josh’s subject matter. Girl on girl love, retiring into Bermuda shorts, Canadian trees, having a drink, hobos, colours, rain and nightmares. It is a frenetic musical journey and at times hard work to listen too, but ultimately in small doses it can be quite rewarding.

The opener, Another Day, for me is the pick of the bunch here, many will have heard it on Triple J and this is Martinez at his best. His flow suits the beats perfectly and the beat doesn’t dominate the track as tends to happen on several others. Other standout performances both lyrically and sonically are Hard Fall, Uphill Climb which features Sarcasm (the artist not the vocal tone), Nightmare, Forged and Another Dollar. All of these are solid and although the subject matter of the rhymes may be a little abstract there is still a quality that will draw people back for repeated listens.

Now to the downside - the tracks that are just a little out there or plain average. Blaze of Grey has a huge musical beat that has too much going on and devours the vocal leaving a very messy result, whilst Walk In The Park sounds like Martinez is rapping in a toilet. Its echo is more annoying than anything else. Finally Hobo’s Lullaby, yes hobo’s exist but putting a rhyme about one walking down a train line and living under a bridge over a sub par beat doesn’t cut it for me.

This is a challenging listen, one with a couple of weaker moments it could have done without, yet for some reason its quirkiness and downright weirdness make it worthy of more than one listen. In six months time I will either hate this with a passion or be recommending it to people left right and centerm so for now I’m going to enjoy it while I can.