My day job involves a lot of time spent online, staying up to date with new technologies and keeping aware of the big happenings in culture, media and business on the Internet. The things that pertain to music are always of special personal import and I think most will agree that Radiohead’s “pay what you want” business model was one of the big events for the Web over the last 12 months. Other maverick online music models have resulted since (like NIN’s free record), but few have the charm of the recent 4AD release from David Edwards, aka Minotaur Shock.
Edwards newest LP is a strictly digital affair (the first for the venerable 4AD?) and rather than offer it for free — a model that only a band as hugely successful as Radiohead can utilize — he decided, quite ingeniously, to price each track according to a number of difficulty factors while crafting the songs. If you have some time and are a fan, you should really read the details and the motivation behind what I think is an historic release. His transparency and honesty are as inspiring as today’s post, “My Burr” which includes one of the more emotive and uplifting choruses I’ve heard in a long time. Edwards’ humble productions benefit from a kitchen-sink approach, placing strings, guitars and other organic samples alongside more contemporary synthetic sounds. It often results in intelligent, inspiring and creative music. Makes a lot of sense that he’d also come up with an equally refreshing way to get that music to the world.
RIYL: Four Tet, Caribou, Plaid, Isan, Maps, Cougar, Psapp
Read About and Buy Amateur Dramatics
http://www.minotaurshock.com/
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