Todd Edwards is a genius...

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...and yet the internets are not forthcoming with reviews (rapturous or otherwise) of his latest record, Odyssey...

why is this so?

I haven't heard it yet...have YOU?

― henry s (henry s), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:29 (seventeen years ago) link

it's really wonderful. less about the cutups and more about the composition & vocals. people who are disappointed that he's leaving his style behind should listen again, and everyone else who doesn't know him yet should check it out.

― milton parker (milton parker), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:38 (seventeen years ago) link

I had to buy it on Amazon, have yet to see a single store carry it in stock.

― milton parker (milton parker), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:39 (seventeen years ago) link

I've seen it in a store (which shall remain nameless, 'cos I'm probably gonna get it, and I don't want none of you yobboes beatin' me to the punch)...

thanks!...(sounds like he's pullin' a "4 Hero"...which is fine by me)...

― henry s (henry s), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 23:09 (seventeen years ago) link

oh, and I hereby propose that the term "God-like genius" be replaced with "Todd-like genius"...(covering both Edwards and Rundgren)...

― henry s (henry s), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 23:13 (seventeen years ago) link

let's see

1) he's over-rated
2) he's not as responsible for sample-heavy house as people think
3) he's tiring to listen to for long stretches of time
4) he's stuck in a rut
5) just because people think he made 2-step happen doesn't make him more fun to listen to

― vahid (vahid), Wednesday, 3 January 2007 00:48 (seventeen years ago) link

v brings it

― friday on the porch (lfam), Wednesday, 3 January 2007 01:55 (seventeen years ago) link

He's a wrrrrrrrrrrecking machine.

http://img456.imageshack.us/img456/6633/rocky031th.jpg

― jim (jim), Wednesday, 3 January 2007 02:12 (seventeen years ago) link

I actually do kind of agree with Vahid's points, but I still think he's great.

Most producers with such a specific schtick are tiring to listen to for long stretches of time.

― Tim F (Tim F), Wednesday, 3 January 2007 02:15 (seventeen years ago) link

he's OK but take an album like "prima edizione". the first two tracks are great, the next three are not so exciting (and not because of familiarity so much as just ... well, they're not *all* bangers, unlike daft punk, who stick to a samey formula on "homework" but who manage to pull 12 ill tracks out in a row) and then by the sixth track or so i'm climbing the walls. i don't mind a todd edwards track here or there on a 2step mix, but even then you listen to something like this and you're like damn, every track is better than todd's!!

it just reminds of, like, frankie bones or something. is he madly influential? yes, madly. but is it still fun to listen to the way something like, oh i dunno, ROYAL HOUSE, is? no, not really.

― vahid (vahid), Wednesday, 3 January 2007 03:05 (seventeen years ago) link

just go here and compare something like ramsey + fen's mix of "i refuse" or tuff jam's "key dub" or dem 2's mix of "take my hand" ... there's no restraint in todd, everything is so OTT ... maybe he it's the "praise" angle that makes it so OTT ... how much did daft punk improve the formula on "face to face", just by mellowing it out a little?

and another thing: over years of listening to todd and being annoyed by todd i've just come to the conclusion that todd doesn't understand space. like, at all. all of his tunes sound utterly flat and compressed to death. his productions have no room to breathe or pop, at all.

― vahid (vahid), Wednesday, 3 January 2007 04:43 (seventeen years ago) link

there is actually a song on that comp where he nails it: "restless soul" is *terrific*.

but the rest of the edwards productions on there just sound so corny and overdone next to tuff jam's effortless cool. "shut the door" in particular is a shame because it has such a killer vocal turn.

― vahid (vahid), Wednesday, 3 January 2007 04:47 (seventeen years ago) link

My favourite is still his remix of Hakan Lidbo's "Walk Away".

― Tim F (Tim F), Wednesday, 3 January 2007 08:03 (seventeen years ago) link

i think everything vahid just described as being a negative is precisely why i like the guy so much. (and i can barely get through a whole edwards mix cd either.)

― violent j (sandboxhulkington), Wednesday, 3 January 2007 17:23 (seventeen years ago) link

Oddly enough, that i Records thing is on the iTunes store. Surely it's worth the $9.99?

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Wednesday, 3 January 2007 17:40 (seventeen years ago) link

Tower was charging 30 bucks for that i Records thing! (I nabbed it at 60% off)...

― henry s (henry s), Wednesday, 3 January 2007 18:07 (seventeen years ago) link

how much did daft punk improve the formula on "face to face", just by mellowing it out a little?

by about half a percent

― Make a Beck Song #1 (wkwkwk), Wednesday, 3 January 2007 20:54 (seventeen years ago) link

your kneejerk contrarianism doesn't faze me, matos!!

― vahid (vahid), Wednesday, 3 January 2007 21:19 (seventeen years ago) link

hahaha sorry about that mr. received wisdom

― Make a Beck Song #1 (wkwkwk), Wednesday, 3 January 2007 21:40 (seventeen years ago) link

I think I brought it up on old ilx. I've got it but I never listen to it and I'm probably his biggest fan ever. I think you can buy it directly from his record company and my copy came with a signed poster that shows the bad computer model crucifix of the Odyssey cover.

― nuilxhollywood (nuilxhollywood), Wednesday, 3 January 2007 22:43 (seventeen years ago) link

I was disappointed at first, apart from one song the patchwork sampling is entirely gone, he's cutting up some fairly generic rhodes & synth pad presets. I haven't been listening to it either, because I loaned it to my Nina Simone / Betty Boo / Crystal Waters / classical gospel worshipping friend (who did not like the copy of Run On Volume One I loaned her) and she's kind of outright refusing to give it back to me.

I never listen to more than a few of his tracks at a time either, that's not really a problem for me...

― milton parker (milton parker), Wednesday, 3 January 2007 22:58 (seventeen years ago) link

xpost: same with 1980-present Scott Walker...i.e. if I spin Tilt once a year, that's OK...I'll never get rid of it...I still dig the guy...or is it the idea of the guy I dig?...(I suppose that's for another thread)...

there is more hairs-on-back-of-neck-standing-up action in a single Todd Edwards track than the entire recorded output of some certain genres...(hello, ambient dub)...which is why it's hard to make it through more than 20 minutes at a time...but it's a good 20 minutes...

― henry s (henry s), Wednesday, 3 January 2007 23:16 (seventeen years ago) link

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