cleaners from venus' martin newell

Mac DeMarco, Jessica Pratt, DIIV, Wild Nothing & more in new Cleaners from Venus doc (trailer)

Martin Newell has been making wonderful pop music since the late ’70s, mostly on his own with a four-track recorder and mostly under the banner of The Cleaners from Venus. He’s a bit like a Britpop Robert Pollard; songs and albums pour out of him at an astounding rate and while the fidelity is often low, the hit factor is high. There have been attempts to bring his music to a wider audience — XTC’s Andy Partridge produced Newell’s 1993 album The Greatest Living Englishman — but mostly he seems happy to exist at the fringes, and has gained quite a cult following along the way.

Captured Tracks, who have reissued many of Newell’s albums over the last 10 years, are producing a documentary directed by James Sharp titled The Jangling Man: The Martin Newell Story which features rare footage and extensive interviews Newell, as well as fans and collaborators like John Cooper Clarke, Dave Gregory (XTC), Mac Demarco, BBC DJ Steve Lamacq, Kimberley Rew (Soft Boys/Katrina & The Waves), Jessica Pratt, R. Stevie Moore, Zachary Cole Smith (DIIV), Iain McNay (Cherry Red), Jack Tatum (Wild Nothing), and more. You can watch the entertaining trailer for the film below.

They’ve also just launched a Kickstarter campaign to help get The Jangling Man made, and you can contribute to that here.

In other news, Captured Tracks will be reissuing Martin Newell’s 1995 record The Off-White Album, which you can pre-order via the film’s Kickstarter.

You can also listen to a couple playlists of Newell and Cleaners from Venus songs to get a taste of his eccentric pop genius.