INTERVIEW: MINOTAUR SHOCK Rural Electronics

themilkman on Aug 19th 2012 11:49 pm

INTERVIEW: MINOTAUR SHOCK Rural Electronics

After recording one album and a handful of EPs for Manchester-based imprint Melodic ten years ago, David Edwards got the chance to move his Minotaur Shock project to 4AD, a label that had partly inspired him over the years. Reality however rarely matches expectations, and things didn’t quite work out as idealistically as he had hoped. Four years on from his last release for the label, he has picked himself up, recorded his fourth studio album, Orchard, and Melodic have welcomed him back with open arms. Here, he talks about his 4AD experience, working with Melodic again, the freedom he had recording the new album, and how British music has inspired him a great deal this time round.
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MINOTAUR SHOCK: Orchard (Melodic)

themilkman on Aug 15th 2012 01:44 am

Minotaur Shock: Orchard

MINOTAUR SHOCK
Orchard
MELO080
Melodic 2012
09 Tracks. 48mins38secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP | DLD US: DLD Boomkat: CD | LP | DLD iTunes: DLD

Following a stint on 4AD, for which is recorded two albums, the second of which, Amateur Dramatics (2008), never received a full UK release, although it was eventually picked up by Audio Dregs in the US who gave it a CD release in 2009, Bristol-based David Edwards, AKA Minotaur Shock, has returned to Melodic, the Manchester label which issued his first album, Chiffs-Chaffs And Willow Warblers, over ten years ago. Melodic was Edwards’s home for three years, and published a number of EPs on the label, most of which were eventually collected on Rinse in 2003.

Orchard doesn’t only denote a return to Melodic, but also a return to the rich symbiotic acoustic/electronic sound of Edwards’s early records which often saw him lumbered with the somewhat inelegant folktronica tag, something which he has always been keen to distance himself from. Continue Reading »

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MINOTAUR SHOCK: Amateur Dramatics (4AD)

themilkman on Sep 19th 2008 12:31 am

Minotaur Shock: Amateur Dramatics

MINOTAUR SHOCK
Amateur Dramatics
EAD2810
4AD 2008
11 Tracks. 51mins02secs

On his website, David Edwards, the brain behind Minotaur Shock, talks about how his record company, the seminal and glorious 4AD, took the decision to only release his third album as a digital format. Not unfortunately unusual these days. This certainly raises once again the question of music as an artefact against music as a product. An equation that Edwards has, past the initial deception of not seeing his work released in physical format, happily taken on and on which he has applied his own angle. The eleven tracks of the album are all available to download individually, and carry a suggested selling price established according to a range of criteria, from technical difficulty or computer crash to extra musicians and fun ratings, with a price range going from 33p for the cheapest track to 77p for the dearest. Continue Reading »

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