The first stateside release by 4AD's Minotaur Shock is a bizarre and frustrating assemblage of disparate elements that cannot happily co-exist (Philip Glass, Frank Zappa, Italian house music, etc.). While often garish and annoying, Amateur Dramatics nevertheless features what is easily one of the best dance tracks to be released in 2008.
David Thomas's career trajectory has been an odd one: Minotaur Shock's first album (Chiff Chaffs and Willow Warblers) was a pleasant and generally well-reviewed foray into the "folktronica" genre. Since then, he has been increasingly weird, self-indulgent, and freewheelingly eclectic. Of course, he has also become much more inventive and skilled as an arranger, but his muse has led him into a stylistic no-man's land that will likely appeal to very few people. As such, Amateur Dramatics was only given a digital release from 4AD and seemed unlikely to be released physically until Audio Dregs stepped in.
The Minotaur Shock website gives a very amusing account of it all (4AD spends "a lot of money on lavish felt-lined gilded box-sets made by nimble-fingered faerie folk who live in the woods," so artists with a limited audience "do not command the same kind of influence over the Powers That Be and their kingdom of jewel-case goblins"). It also features an innovative sliding scale for download pricing based upon factors such as how taxing the track was for his hard drive, how annoying it was to mix, and whether or not the song is danceable.
Purportedly, there is an underlying concept to this album, but Thomas will not reveal what it is. I am hoping that he deliberately set out to musically mimic the heavy-handedness and over-emoting of amateur theater (I base this on the album title, of course). The album's best moments reveal that Thomas has an impressive knack for melody and nuance, so I have to believe that the low points (most of the first half of the album) are willfully annoying and created in a spirit of puckish glee.
The album's centerpiece is "This Plane Is Going To Fall," an achingly beautiful collaboration with vocalist Anna-Lynne Williams. It is absolutely brilliant and easily eclipses the rest of the album. Also, it is unique here both for adhering to a straightforward song structure and for the inclusion of a vocalist. Every single aspect of the song is compelling: William's cooing, breathy vocals are chopped and layered sublimely; the central synth riff is cool and infectious; and intertwining layers of melancholy violins are piled on as the song builds. Collaboration clearly suits Thomas well.
Unfortunately, "Plane" is not representative of the current Minotaur Shock vision. Nevertheless, there are some other excellent and memorable moments buried near the end of the album. "My Burr" couples a warm synth progression with heartbreaking layers of sad violins (Thomas "wanted to create melodies that snaked in and out like dancing cobras, creating patterns with their swaying scaled bodies as their eyes transfixed like sparkling emeralds".). It is also one of the few times on the album where woodwinds are used in a non-jarring manner. "BATS," immediately following, is a dark and lurching industrial piece. Although it intermittently sounds like a video-game soundtrack, both the layers of noise and glitchery billowing up through the mix and the mangled-sounding melody work beautifully. Eventually, the harshness dissipates and the song seamlessly ends on a melodic and robotically rhythmic chorus of sorts.
The remaining tracks are a mixed bag. Sometimes Thomas's kitchen-sink eclecticism works, frequently it results in something that sounds like a neo-classical Fatboy Slim. The track that fills me with the greatest amount of hostility is probably "Accelerated Footage" (although "Am Dram" also makes me grind my teeth). It is based on a Yaz-worthy burbling synth motif, but that is quickly shat upon by an insistent, misbegotten, and ham-fisted saxophone and violin melody that is reminiscent of the most ghastly moments of Philip Glass's 1986 pop fiasco Songs From Liquid Days.
I simply do not understand Thomas's current aesthetic at all- there are many moments of beauty and complexity on this album that are crassly sabotaged by big, dumb dance beats. I am enthusiastically hoping that David loses interest in Italian Disco/House or finds a worthy collaborator to rein him in a bit before his next release. At the very least, he needs to learn that clarinets and techno are not complementary. Minotaur Shock's deeply skewed sensibility, meticulous orchestration, and singular vision has great potential and it would be a shame if lack of self-editing caused the world to stop paying attention.
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