earlier in the year i was lucky enough to have a few minutes of david ‘minotaur shock‘ edwards time. such bonuses are all part of working in a glass fronted building not too far from where the man himself earns his daily crust.
anyway, the conversation drifted towards the usual, ‘so what you up to then re minotaur shock‘ type of direction. at which point david casually told me all these grand plans of the new album, amateur dramatics. extravagant packaging, cardboard box that opened up revealing all manner of personalised treats etc etc. an idea not too far from the limited edition that laura marling released actually. and so i waited and waited. kept my eyes and ears open for the news of its release, but alas such grand plans were not to be. instead i heard that the record label, 4ad, had an uncomfortable in the pants shuffle and deigned the album to be a digital only release.
bugger.
however, as per usual in the world of david edwards, there’s often a nice twist in the tale (eg. see those infamous bronze age fox shaped singles), and for this digital only release, he decided to open the whole can of radiohead styled worms and basically value each track according to some off the wall criteria, and then via a diary style website, validate the charge per track.
such honesty and humanity is quite a weird thing to digest in this harsh world of quick fix sonic bytes, but adds a new dimension to the otherwise disconnected process of releasing an album. the listener/artist relationship is strengthened, which could indeed be of benefit for both sides of the process.
as for the music ?
well, it’s a continuation of david’s love of home made electronics, and real instruments.
the meeting of the old and the new, where clarinets collide with thin electro beats, acid squiggles battle against violin solos, piano and violins buddy up with some digital noise, (strings are a dominant factor throughout), and basically, the whole flow invokes a feeling of penguin cafe orchestra via hot chip type of vibe with some not-so subtle detours into the living room of philip glass.
predominantly instrumental, even in its lo-fi download form (i believe there are high quality files via a few of the online outlets), the album is a warm generous listen with rich attention to the aural content, providing the listener with proof that not everyone needs to have their keyboard riffs channeled through a distortion/compressor effect.
for me, the standout track is the lazy sunday disco groove featuring vocals (something i feel david should use more of !), by anna-lynne williams, the genuinely perfect, this plane is going to fall. a track that dave has decided to be worthy of 66p. a crime given that i believe this with the right promotion from 4ad, and a few blogsphere friendly remixers, could have been a contender for a crossover hit in 2008.
still, we live in a different world now, where albums with a 3 day shelf life are pumped with advertising revenue, and wonderful albums that don’t tick the easy pigeonhole options have to be available on the wire only, and, while i ponder on such injustices, i’m off to listen to this lovely album once more.
more detail : here