Minotaur Shock
Maritime
[4AD; 2005]
Rating: 6.2
Finally, a band name that makes complete sense. We'd hope David Edwards aka Shockface would just go all the way musically, too-- Maritime for the most part is folktronica that masquerades as post-rock that masquerades as...-- but nope, there's not a single rapper anywhere on this record.
Instead we get Manitoba's Start Breaking My Heart Part 2. Which is no slight, since Manitoba's IDM debut is one of few such slabs worth talking about. Some tracks here forget their melodies but valiantly gadget their way through: Strip a Sufjan song of everything but its chirpy horns, woody blocks, and xylo phones, and you might have a "Muesli". (You are encouraged to read this last sentence in a Jeff Foxworthy voice.) And perhaps you forgot about the existence of the band Tortoise; "(She's in) Dry Dock Now" has not only the courage to glitch-pluck its strings, but the prescience to prefuse the ones and twos-- a Tortoise 73 cover before the Tortoise 73 original post-drops? I was double-fisting sandwiches in the VIP at the time, but I think I heard dudes play this song at Intonation.
When the Shock does muster a strong melody, he makes a synth-pop jam out of it, and those are Maritime's better moments. There's this band with Hollywood-branch Amoeba Records employees, I think they're called the Ray Makers-- anyway, for you L.A. cats still bummed about my Weezer tracks review from six fucking months ago, that reference point is my atonement. "Six Foolish Fisherman" fakes the funk, but "Luck Shield" is "Mr. Magic" in neon, with Wurlitzer-like flutters on the head and a killer quiet bells flip. Sorry though, Pink's is an ugly man's Nathan's.
There's a love song, too-- "Mistaken Tourist"-- and it's anxious to fill my IDM love song quota (0.75 love songs). But the soft squelch lead and pulled strings and cutesy bells come off a bit too well-intentioned, especially coming from an act whose very namesake was, shall we say, Veneris monumentum nefandae.
-Nick Sylvester, September 01, 2005
Review by Heather Phares
On Maritime, Minotaur Shock (aka David Edwards) wanted to combine his loves of the seaside and sleek '80s pop. On paper, this sounds like an almost impossible mix, but the actual results are equally playful and beautiful, and the best work from Edwards yet. While his numerous EPs and 2001 debut album, Chiff-Chaffs & Willow Warblers, had their moments, too often Edwards' music felt overly restrained and too indebted to IDM pioneers such as Boards of Canada and Aphex Twin. Maritime, however, fairly sparkles with personality right from the start: "Muesli"'s whimsical clarinets give way to what sounds like a music box playing a sea shanty, while "(She's In) Drydock Now" pits a mellow but goofy guitar line against breezy '80s synths and flutes. While Minotaur Shock's new sound isn't quite as overtly childlike as that of Mum or the dearly departed Plone, a certain innocence and youthful quality flows through Maritime. "Vigo Bay," "Six Foolish Fishermen," and "Mistaken Tourist" are just a few of the album's charming, lighthearted peaks, all of which show that Edwards' decision to give into his pop leanings was probably the best thing that could happen to his music. Fortunately, though, he doesn't dumb down the intriguing twists and turns of his previous work to make Maritime catchier; "Hilly" is particularly complex, mixing whistling synths, metallic percussion, strummy acoustic guitars, and several glitchy breakdowns into a free-flowing yet subtle standout. The album's second half recalls Edwards' earlier, more subdued style, particularly on the slow-building "Twosley" and "Four Magpies," one of the album's most "folktronica" tracks. Still, these songs -- and Maritime as a whole -- have a much freer, more natural feel than anything Edwards had done before, and this buoyant vibe is contagious. Maritime might be a light, almost frothy album, but that's exactly where its power lies.
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