Life is getting easy. Too easy. We're a planet of mummies' boys and girls happily toeing the path decreed by self-appointed, self-righteous moral guardians. Technology too is on an accelerated pursuit not to make lives better, but to merely make them more comfortable and effortlessly efficient. The signs are all there, we've just been too busy swallowing it all to care: food is all about limits and constraints (5 a day, recommended intakes), entertainment is digestible conceptual content to be delivered and devoured rather than enjoyed. Then we've the gadgets transporting us to the bleeding edge of NOW, spoonfeeding delights with a fibre optic arm at one end and then digitally wiping the other without us breaking wind or a sweat. Convenience is convenient, effort and application are with the dodo. Following this trajectory of Darwin's theory of devolution we're destined to become Matrix-like coccooned pods of human lavae, plugging in for pleasure memories and emotions whilst our atrophied physical vessels wallow embryo-like, saturated in curdled fluids of our own making. We're all going to hell in automated handcart: like I said, modern life is easy, and rubbish.  

Praise be then, for Minotaur Shock, who, whilst not being the saviour of our rotting and damned slide toward oblivion, does at least attempt to buck the trend of music's current easy option, simple life nosedive by administering a recognisibly maverick take on dance-pop. It's worth noting who exactly Minotaur Shock is. It is a he, and he is Bristolian Dave Edwards who has carefully plotted a casual success trajectory through a series of whimiscal remixes, EPs and early albums. However it was the second full-length Maritime and its mini voyages through oceanic washes, down-tempo beats, glistening synths that really pricked everyone-who-cared-to-listen's 'Wow!' balloon. It played out like the vibrant pop-smarts kid brother of Panda Bear's stoner scuba diving expeditions and Four Tet's dance mathletics, oozing vitality and ambitious endevour with a perky synth pop tenacity. Three years on and Edwards, or rather The Shock as no-one but me calls him/them, returns with a new longplayer, Amateur Dramatics, a new focus and the familiar overactive imagination.

What's immediately striking about Amateur Dramatics is that there's a greater drive and momentum to the usual adventure. Whilst the many influences of Maritime remain intact the rhymthically relaxed vibe of yore is shaken to its daisy-picking boots. It's almost what you'd consider an awakening: as though Edwards has risen from a bean bag slumber of the nightclub chill out room to find everyone else has nobbed off for bigger-beated fun in the main room. Opener Zoo Keeper eases in this new regime - an ominously austere, almost Hitchcockian piece of stacatto funk - which carries its clarinet signatures into the bristling techno sprint of title track (of sorts) Am Dram. It's superbly invigorating stuff that even when the subtlety and tempos are dialled back, as on the The Sky Is Going To Fall's wonderful twilight sojourn, there's still a startling immediacy that makes Minotaur Shock such a thrill.

One thing you can be sure of in Minotaur Shock world is that, like those of Richard X and Basement Jaxx, these compositions are comprised of some unexpected, often quirky strands that dovetail into a captivatingly unique state-of-the-art joy. The worlds of jazz, dance and classical orchestration often combine in new and many fangled ways: Jason Forrest smashes all three together in a delirously inventive electro journey. Slowing things down, My Burr is a more considered meeting, thoughtfully intertwining string arrangements and deft beats in a vaporous glide.

These odd couplings don't always come off; quite often whilst the boldness of the ideas is admirable their execution is so unharmonious you're left dizzy with vertigo. Accelerated Footage seems content with its ear-shredding goal of drowning The Humphrey Lyttelton Band in the sink at a noisy youth club. Likewise, Buzzards is an unhappy compromise of synth-pop and colliery brass-bands; naggingly dated and overstated, it sounds like New Order making a concerted effort to appeal to the Radio 4 and Werthers Original demograph.

Occasionally a little too clever and with a head swimming full of enterprising aspirations, Amateur Dramatics steadfastly continues Dave Edward's joyful, fascinating scheming. It doesn't dally, prance or bellow self-importance - it simply doesn't need to; when Minotaur Shock landscapes the pop world in such a richly evocative and masterly manner it's worth noting. And, with the future in ruins, we'll need all the beacons of hope we can get; it's a grave new world after all.  

Release date: 11/08/08
Artist website: www.minotaurshock.com
Label: 4AD

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