Daniel Blumberg – Minus

I can’t remember if I spoke about this already, I don’t think I did, anyway, it is the second album I received from the Rough Trade subscription and just like the last one, I’d never heard of it. It is an album of fingernails down the blackboard and tiny, fragile beauty, each perfectly placed. I saw the title track performed on Jools Holland, a wonderful performance, and it was rather nice knowing who the hell he was having already received and listened to the album. Here is the title track:

I really rather like the lyrics, sparse though they are, and can relate to them having found myself in a similar situation somewhere in my past:

Minus the words from my mouth, I’m here
Minus what I’m all about, I’m here
Minus the intent to feel, I’m here

Here is the other track from that Jools Holland show, The Bomb (I couldn’t find Minus):

A little bit of background, Blumberg is an English artist, musician, songwriter and composer who has released music under a variety of names, including Yuck, Hebronix, Oupa, Heb-Hex, and Guo, of which I have heard of exactly none. He has also collaborated with musicians including Low, Silver Jews, Lambchop, Neil Hagerty, Seymour Wright, Terry Day,  Jad Fair and Norman Blake, of whom I have heard of exactly some.

Tracklist

A1	Minus
A2	The Fuse
A3	Madder
B1	Stacked
B2	Permanent
B3	The Bomb
B4	Used To Be Older

My copy is a limited clear vinyl version in a gatefold sleeve, it’s a nice thing and, if I’m in the right mood it is a very good debut album. It’s doubtful it will be a big hit or trouble the charts much, if at all, but, as I have said repeatedly in the past, the charts are no longer a reflection of quality, if they ever even were.

A lot of the dissonance I mentioned earlier is in the very long Madder, which is somewhere around 12 minutes, 5 of which I could have probably never have missed had I never heard them and it came as a surprise to me that it was released as the second single from the album.  I don’t dislike it, but the noise does sometimes feel like noise for the sake of noise.

Overall I like this album and I would never have picked it up and bought it had it not been for the rough trade subscription, so that’s a good thing I think.

Rating: 7.9