Minotaur Shock: The ‘Monday Is OK’ Mix

To celebrate the release, David has done a stunning mix for R$N. Like the album itself, the mix is meditative and transformative, introspective and eminently hopeful. It features music from artists who can conjure up entire landscapes from a few layers of sound, from To Rococo Rot and Gastr Del Sol to Autechre and Broadcast.

The album is available on limited edition CD and digitally in all the usual places.

Please introduce yourself…

Who are you:

David Edwards, or Minotaur Shock if we’re talking about musically

Where are you:

East Bristol

What are you:

I write and produce electronic music mostly on my computer

Tell us about the Monday mixtape you’ve put together for us.

I recently released an album, It All Levels Out. This mixtape features stuff that either makes me feel like I want It All Levels Out to make people feel, or music that made an impression on me years ago and inspired it. It’s not a tape, and I’m not even convinced it’s a mix, but hopefully it evokes a sense of peaceful optimism with a slight undercurrent of discomfort that you’re ignoring for now.

If it were to be drawn what would it look like?

One of those amazing photo-realistic pictures done with a biro. It would be a picture of a coniferous forest, but the perspective would be from a clearing, with the tree line a few feet away. The forest would suggest the possibility of a great adventure yet to be had. You would get the sense that the artist has travelled far to get to the clearing, but really their journey had yet to begin.

If it were a food what would it be?

Tiramisu. One of those big refrigerated drawers full.

What would be the ideal setting to listen to the mix?

Walking with no real destination, listening on headphones. Maybe you’ve left your phone at home. So you’re listening on an iPod or a walkman or something. Perhaps you’ve been a bit moody and snappy today so you’re walking it off, and by the end of the mix you’re ready to go back home. You’ve realised that you’ve been a bit of a dick, and that life is too short for that kind of thing. So you’re ready to apologise and have made up your mind to be especially positive for the rest of the day.

What should we be wearing

Sensible footwear, glazed look.

Where was it recorded?

In my computer.

How do you feel about Mondays in general, excited…or?

Not a huge fan, tbh. Not their fault though, it’s not personal.

Who got you hooked on electronic music?

Hmm I don’t think it was a who. I can’t remember being introduced to electronic music. I kind of found it. I played a cover of Adamski’s ‘NRG’ on a Yamaha PSS-480 while I was at school, that’s my earliest memory of playing electronic music.

Who would you say are your biggest influences and what are you hoping to achieve with your music?

I guess the usual suspects for people who hit their teens during the 90s: Aphex, Autechre, Black Dog, Stereolab, Tortoise etc. What I’m trying to achieve has changed – my focus at the moment is communication; I’m interested in how to express very specific feelings through instrumental electronic music.

What were your original aspirations as musicians and how do you think you’re shaping up?

All I’ve ever really wanted is for people to say about me: ‘he knew what he was doing’. I think if I did know what I was doing it wouldn’t be fun anymore, so I’m glad I don’t.

Some self help questions for a Monday:

Am I excited to dive into the challenges that i have lined up for the week?

Some of them.

Am I looking forward to engaging with the people i am meeting or working with?

Some of them.

Am I going to my dream job?

I don’t think anyone dreams of jobs.

Am I being compensated fairly for the value i bring to my job?

I hope so.

Do I feel energised, rested, and confident?

Yes, although confidence is a preference for the habitual voyeur.

If you were trapped on a desert island with one other person, who would you choose? How long would it be before you eat them?

My wife. Not long I don’t think. Maybe 3 days.

Your doctor says you need more exercise….what do you take up for exercise?

Speed walking.

If you could travel in time…where in time would you go? Why?

Do you mean ‘when’? I’d like to go back to December 24th 1999, so that I could enjoy Christmas and then take advantage of the turn of the century parties. I was ill last time so it was rubbish. No partying like it was 1999 for me.

What was the first electronic record you heard and how did it make you feel?

It was probably something like Beat Dis by Bomb the Bass or one of the early Coldcut singles. I was 12 or something, and had never heard that kind of cut-up sample based stuff before. Blew my tiny brain and made me desperate to get my hands on some sort of sampler or drum machine. Prior to that I was a big Dire Straits fan.

How does your brain work when making music? How does it work when you aren’t?

I just follow instinct when making music, I rarely start with a solid plan. I have an idea of what I want the music to ‘say’, but then it turns into a stream of consciousness that gets honed into something palatable. I spend a lot of time ‘gardening’ musically – just trying new sounds and techniques, planting seeds of ideas, sweeping up the leaves of stuff that didn’t work, pruning sounds until they match what’s in my head. When I’m not making music I worry that I’m a bit vague – I’m not very good at remembering things, and I keep doing this thing where I’ll ask a question and then not listen to the answer so I have to ask again. Drives people mad.

What were the first and last records you bought?

First record was a double tape, it was Alchemy Live by Dire Straits, and while I was at the counter in WHSmiths paying, my friend Ed got mugged by some bigger boys. The last record I bought was Distant Call by Broadcast and I cried when I listened to it. I’m welling up now tbh.

What are you obsessed with at the moment?

Broadcast – I’ve been listening to the back catalogue for weeks.

What’s your answer to everything?

Yorkshire tea and superficial jokey conversation.

Anything else we need to discuss.

I’m ok if you are.

Minotaur Shock levelling out mix tracklisting

01 waltz (in memoriam old ways of living) – More Eaze
02 Milkweed – Holly Waxwing
03 Another Haunted Mirror – G S Schray
04 some days felt like home – mu tate
05 Die Dinge des Lebens – To Rococo Rot
06 Drive My Car (The Truth, No Matter What It Is, Isn’t That Frightening) – Eiko Ishibashi
07 Each Dream is an Example – Gastr Del Sol
08 Overbraid – 7038634357
09 Cryptic Reserve – Wim Mertens
10 Surface Pan – Sofie Birch
11 Side Lengths – Grand River
12 Appalachian Grove III – Laurie Spiegel
13 Dub One – Egil Kalman
14 Overand – Autechre
15 Blink – Hiroshi Yoshimura
16 Echo’s Answer – Broadcast
17 8:07 – Global Communication
18 Pendulum Man – Bark Psychosis
19 Plays John Cassavetes 2 – Ekkehard Ehlers