An Unearthed DIY Classic Finally Gets A Proper Release
An album like this couldn’t have been made in 1994. Strumming acoustic guitar and angel-like vocals. Minor keys, eerie piano, violin and cello. This isn’t the sound of a grunge band. And it’s DIY, recorded in a house in Livonia, Michigan, when big labels still ruled everything. After more than a quarter century it gets a remaster through Third Man Mastering, a vinyl release in March 2023, and it’s available to stream. Mars Is a Ten by ESP Summer is an album from another place and another time but it feels like it belongs in the present moment.
Ian Masters had just left the band Pale Saints a year before. He initially formed Spoonfed Hybrid with Chris Trout, but after an excellent self-titled release they split. His next move found him partnering with Warren Defever, the producer and creative mind behind His Name Is Alive. Both musicians were on the 4AD label, home to a host of imaginative indie artists. But Mars Is a Ten didn’t find a place on 4AD in 1994. Instead, it’s lived a low-key life on smaller imprints. Defever first self-released it as a cassette on his own Time Stereo label. The next year, a compact disc release as E.S.P. Continent in France and, eventually, in 1996, a CD in The States through Perdition Plastics.
Mars Is a Ten isn’t the only collaboration between these two. A limited edition ESP Summer 10-inch came out on Farrágo Records in late 1995 and Masters’ plays on several tracks on His Name Is Alive’s 1996 album Stars on E.S.P. Soon after, Ian Masters moved to Japan to explore new sounds and new music. Warren Defever caught up with him again in 2020 to make two more recordings of note: Kingdom of Heaven and the fascinating Here.