the godlike genius of Todd Edwards

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i bet it's lost in the pile with my throbbing gristle and a-ha record too

my life is a shambles

― jess (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 22 April 2003 19:14 (10 years ago) Permalink

nb: throbbing gristle and a-ha did not record an album together

― jess (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 22 April 2003 19:14 (10 years ago) Permalink

(snaps fingers, stamps foot) FUCK.

― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 22 April 2003 19:19 (10 years ago) Permalink

ha ha ha! i'm happy with a bit of ribbing and took it as such. it made me laugh and i wasn't being entirely serious myself either... it's good to have slightly differing opinions even when you generally agree with people... hell, it makes a change from arguing with geir...

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Tuesday, 22 April 2003 19:20 (10 years ago) Permalink

mm. except, matos, what if todd went and did this?

what then? :)

― Chip Morningstar (bob), Tuesday, 22 April 2003 22:35 (10 years ago) Permalink

I think Edwards gets a bit too much credit for 2-step. Vocals, yes, but beats and basslines, absolutely not. Most of his stuff is just standard house thump--that's why he gets old faster than he should.

With Akufen, I couldn't really get past the first few tracks on the album, which (admittedly on a superficial listen) sounded like bad IDM circa 1995.

― Ben Williams, Tuesday, 22 April 2003 23:13 (10 years ago) Permalink

mm. except, matos, what if todd went and did this?

That is the single best thing to happen in a long time. If Todd Edwards can get out of his speed garage-beat rut, then we have a lot of wonderful music to look forward to. Maybe I should start going to church.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 23 April 2003 00:33 (10 years ago) Permalink

I couldn't possibly disagree more with any of what Ben Williams said. The beats and bass of a track like "Never Far from You" absolutely fall in line with early 2step, and his hi-hat programming has always been very intricate, adding a polyrhtyhmic frission to the regular 4/4. As for My Way, that was an extremely superficial listen, all right.

― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 23 April 2003 04:46 (10 years ago) Permalink

Matos is right. Edwards was carrying a difft. sort of two-step banner from the start, but a two-step one nonetheless.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Wednesday, 23 April 2003 04:49 (10 years ago) Permalink

played that link--he's doing R&B now?! holy shit! good things await! too bad none of it made it onto Full On Vol. 2, though. next time, I hope....

― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 23 April 2003 04:58 (10 years ago) Permalink

Even at his straight housiest the bass is less a thump than an upstroke push to what follows snare-wise, which carves his 4/4 into something so much less literal. He's as good with that as he is with the samples: I get just as lost in his vocalless mix-out tags as I do in the full-on word slurp.

― Andy, Wednesday, 23 April 2003 05:34 (10 years ago) Permalink

ben you are a little bit of an old codger, coming on and reining everyone's enthusiasm back all the time

haha

― Chip Morningstar (bob), Wednesday, 23 April 2003 09:03 (10 years ago) Permalink

Eh, I don't know about that. I'm not saying I don't like Todd Edwards. Noone seems to have any trouble ignoring me, anyway ;o)

I listened to Never Ever Far again. Think its a great track, obviously. But I'm really not hearing anything much 2-steppy about it. There's the 4/4 pulse, and the barest hint of a melodic bassline. The drum pattern shuffles along, sure, but I wouldn't exactly call it "intricate" and it doesn't do anything to break up the pulse. And it just plods along unchanged for the duration of the song. I think his rhythms are quite downbeat, actually.

Whereas I then put on Rewind, to take a completely random example, and I hear a rhythm that's much more ruptured, with lots more internal breaks, micropulses, microedits... there's just so much going on. And that's not a particularly adventurous 2-step track. There's not really any dub elements going on in it, for instance, which bring a whole extra level of beef and disorientation on 2-step tracks from early (Double 99) to late (James Lavonz).

For me a lot of the best 2-step outshines Edwards--whether you agree with that or not, I think it's hard to dispute that there's a lot more going on in the music than what he brought to the party. All I'm saying is, I think the James Brown-Ohio Players metaphor is a tad overstated... I never liked the Ohio Players much, either!

― Ben Williams, Wednesday, 23 April 2003 10:39 (10 years ago) Permalink

but "Never Far From You" is from 1996, pre-2step, and "Re-Rewind" is from 1998, when 2step was starting to pick up steam. I think Andy Battaglia's summation of how the bass pushes the beats is dead on, and the early stuff (i.e. most of Full On Vol. 1) has that effect--it's suggestive of 2step w/o actually being it, and folks like Tuff Jam would later on push that aspect of it further.

― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 23 April 2003 18:34 (10 years ago) Permalink

which is to say, most of the British 2step guys had been doing breaks-based stuff of some sort (Steve Gurley in Foul Play, for instance), so it's natural that they'd bring more of an overtly polyrhythmic, breakbeat-oriented sensibility into the music once they got ahold of it--more so than Edwards, of course, who comes out of a straighter house tradition than they do

― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 23 April 2003 18:41 (10 years ago) Permalink

Exactly! Now there's nothing left for us to argue about :(

― Ben Williams, Wednesday, 23 April 2003 18:44 (10 years ago) Permalink

oh, I'll find something! ;-)

― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 23 April 2003 18:46 (10 years ago) Permalink

it's his way, you see.

so i dug out the akufen record and it's really good! i was too quick to dismiss it.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 23 April 2003 19:59 (10 years ago) Permalink

Akufen album is good if you listen a track at a time, I think. It could have been sequenced much better - the first three tracks and the last track stick out like sore thumbs as it is.

I sorta agree with Ben - I luv Todd Edwards but mostly for reasons quite different to what appeals to me re UK Garage. Although his remix of Hakan Lidbo's "Walk Away" sounds amazing in the middle of Pure Garage III.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 25 April 2003 04:49 (10 years ago) Permalink

He also sounds amaing in the middle of Pure Garage V

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Friday, 25 April 2003 04:54 (10 years ago) Permalink

Am I the only person in the world to whom the sequence from "Deck The House" to "Late Night Munchies" is the best part of "My Way"? Everyone goes on about "Skidoos" all the time, and I agree that it's such a great track, but... To me it's kinda like saying that the ballads (good though they are) are the best bits of "The Writing's On The Wall".

Anyway - Matos, great article! But why the Akufen bitching (other than him receiving accolades that Todd should've got)? In your blog entry you rightfully claim that the big difference is that Todd is about melody/harmony/texture while Akufen is about rhythm... and then you write:
"Akufen's message boils down to "look how weird and cool the radio blips I picked up are," "
But ain't that kinda missing the point? Surely, Akufen message rather boils down to: "look how FUNKILY I've arranged these weird and cool radio blips"? His stuff is deliciously sharp and TIGHT, basically,
the most wonderful brain aerobics, calling your synapses to get on
down and boogie.

"Full On Vol.2" is great, but it suffers a bit from bad sequencing, making it even more hermetic and uninviting for the uninitiated - I prefer post-"Saved My Life" Todd to the old school Todd, but tracks like "Radio Thing" and "Push The Love" did stir up the flow of "Full On Vol.1" in a good way, and their ilk is sorely missed here.

The mega-wonderful 1xtra mix I pimped in the post way above is still something I think all Todd-heads should check out, and if you want more Todd R&B jams, click 'ere:
http://www.johnclew.fsnet.co.uk/cheekyrnb.ram

― Mind Taker, Friday, 25 April 2003 17:20 (10 years ago) Permalink

obviously everyone else thinks "Deck the House" --> "Late Night Munchies" is the reason to own the album; that's what's great about it. I mentioned "Skidoos" because it's salient to the point I was trying to make, not because it's the best song. And who's bitching about Akufen? I like him, but to pretend like he discovered the wheel that Edwards has been rolling for a decade is silly. Balance must be struck etc. And certainly how funkily those blips are arranged is the point--I already said that in the article.

Actually, having already written it up in print, I must say I disagree with you re: the sequencing of Full On 2--I think it's much better done than the first one, the first couple tracks are kinda blah but then each track keeps upping the ante; my two favorites are the last two tracks, always a good sign. Also, to me his absolute peak is the Mantra "Away" remix, which is '97 I believe--his remixes are at least as good as his originals, probably a bit better. It's gravy gravy gravy as far as I'm concerned, but as my man Andy pointed out last night, he does seem to be getting a bit more M.O.R. as far as his source material and effect both.

Also, that thing you linked way upthread (haven't checked out yr new link, will try to later) sounded good, but basically like Todd-of-old with clankier beats--not that big a difference, really.

― M Matos (M Matos), Saturday, 26 April 2003 01:02 (10 years ago) Permalink

Er, a bit of a misunderstanding there: the "1xtra mix" I was talking about is not the R&B remix of "Saved My Life" you're referring to (which I agree is not all that, though it may well point to a welcome future expansion of Todd's musical map), but rather this:
http://www.theoneuk.co.uk/210303/stream/TODD_EDWARDS_1XTRA_2.ram

It's a half hour mix that's got half the tracks off "Full On Vol.2" put together in a way that beats the album's sequencing as far as I'm concerned, with a few oldies thrown in (in this context "The Praise" sounds soooo much better than ever)... it just goes up and up, culminating in the indescribably gorgeous remix of Space Cowboy's "Crazy Talk" - one of his best in ages. Unfortunately still unreleased, and no-one knows when it will hit the streets.

That Mantra remix - fuck yes, what a jaw-droppingly awesome tune. I agree that his remixes are often beter than his originals (and considering the business practices of i! Records, I'm not holding my breath for a best-of remix comp in foreseeable future, sigh). Tim's right about the Hakan Libdo dub too, and I'll also add to the list his (along w/ Sunshine Bros) remix of Somore's "Refuse" that hardly anyone ever mentions, but is truly heavenly.

― Mind Taker, Sunday, 27 April 2003 14:28 (10 years ago) Permalink

Oh, and the thing about "Skidoos" - I hadn't written that with you in mind MM, but rather most folks I know who've heard Akufen, and consider it the album's absolute peak. I seem to recall lotsa ILM people claiming the same too.

― Mind Taker, Sunday, 27 April 2003 14:34 (10 years ago) Permalink

I'm assuming everyone's heard Akufen's "Little Hop of Horror" from Electric Ladyland: Clickhop Vers 1? I never listened to My Way much, but I go back to this track all the time. The guitar lick and synth make it a pretty enough song, but his sampling seems much more inspired and relevant to the track. "Skidoos" seems like a typical micro-house track with a few 'Akufen-ish' noises thrown in.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Sunday, 27 April 2003 16:45 (10 years ago) Permalink

the non-My Way tracks I've heard are uniformly superb, and are almost all within the sample-flurry vein.

project for the future (i.e. when/if I get a better PC w/d/l and burnign capabilities): make that T.E. remixes comp myself.

― M Matos (M Matos), Sunday, 27 April 2003 23:53 (10 years ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

In case people still read this thread, Space Cowboy - Crazy Talk (Todd Edwards mixes) should be out in October/November 2003. And look out at the moment for 2003 mixes of various tracks in Todd's discography, like Groovin Disco Affair - You Don't Want To Lose It, and Never Far From You, some interesting stuff to come from Mr Edwards.

― JC Lew, Saturday, 28 June 2003 19:50 (9 years ago) Permalink

space cowboy may be too jesus even for me

― Chip Morningstar (bob), Saturday, 28 June 2003 20:49 (9 years ago) Permalink

'you know the truth is Jesus' ;)

― JC Lew, Sunday, 29 June 2003 23:07 (9 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

New single out called "Who You Are" is excellent as usual and includes a slight variation on his usual beat!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 19:47 (8 years ago) Permalink

it's on this weeks 1xtra chart show: http://www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/garage/chart.shtml

(along with a bunch of other amazing stuff)

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 19:49 (8 years ago) Permalink

Apparently there was also a "Crazy In Love" remix last year!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 20:09 (8 years ago) Permalink

Spencer if you make a CD-R of Todd MP3s (tracks and remixes both, unmixed versions plz thx) I will pay you $100. No lie.

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 20:18 (8 years ago) Permalink

(OK, maybe not $100. but I will pay you.)

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 20:18 (8 years ago) Permalink

what Matos said, Spencer - it's been killer trying to find TE stuff in NZ.

― etc, Wednesday, 15 September 2004 05:57 (8 years ago) Permalink

a couple weeks ago i discovered that the 'crazy in love' remix existed, but couldn't find it on slsk. then i realized that it no doubt sounded exactly like i imagined it did, and stopped wanting to hear it.

― m. (mitchlnw), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 08:07 (8 years ago) Permalink

2 weeks pass...

Just received New Trend Sounds 2004 from Amazon.co.uk. It has 7 unreleased tracks. Not much to say - it's Todd Edwards doing his usual thing, but despite their similarities, every one of his productions is like a small glimpse of heaven. It makes me wish Kevin Shields would have just plugged away doing variations on Loveless.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 1 October 2004 19:14 (8 years ago) Permalink

"Through the Pain" is amazing!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 1 October 2004 19:20 (8 years ago) Permalink

I like how his sample snippets also contain the vinyl crackle which also cuts in and out.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 1 October 2004 19:40 (8 years ago) Permalink

Here's a question - what do the original artists think about Todd's lyrical re-spiritualizing? Do people just accept that it's what does, or have people not taken kindly to it?

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:08 (8 years ago) Permalink

`that it's what ***he***does`

Gah.

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:09 (8 years ago) Permalink

I doubt it's an issue. I mean, Phoenix for instance, probably knew beforehand what they were getting into and probably just admire how he works God into the track.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:11 (8 years ago) Permalink

I have to hand it to Todd - the phonemes he's able to create via editing alone are jaw-dropping, that Phoenix remix being a great example.

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Friday, 1 October 2004 21:15 (8 years ago) Permalink

I don't think there's any other artist who makes me consider "God" more than Todd Edwards.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 5 October 2004 07:32 (8 years ago) Permalink

I'm an atheist, but if they played Todd in the house of God, I'd be down every Sunday.

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Tuesday, 5 October 2004 08:06 (8 years ago) Permalink

3 months pass...

Here's a snippet of the track I mentioned upthread: "Through the Pain".

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Saturday, 8 January 2005 01:14 (8 years ago) Permalink

Woah, that's pretty nice. It's sort of what I expected but...slightly different!

― .adam (nordicskilla), Saturday, 8 January 2005 01:29 (8 years ago) Permalink

Yes! There's a... variation. I really hope he collaborates more.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Saturday, 8 January 2005 01:31 (8 years ago) Permalink

I'm downloading Full On right now (finally) and I'm pretty excited. Listening to Tales From the Underground in anticipation

― W i l l (common_person), Saturday, 8 January 2005 01:36 (8 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

according to Todd-Edwards.net , "Todd has been selected the winner of the 13th Annual Billboard Songwriter Award in the category of Dance. His song "Far Away", taken from his forthcoming 2006 album "The Journey", was chosen from thousands of entries."

ooh, a NEW ALBUM. great!!! no word on the release date yet, but the Godd himself says it's gonna be vocal-heavy. not sure about the "definite departure" bit, but I don't mind - after all these years I'm STILL not tired even slightly tired of his shtick (and I'm glad that many 4x4 UKG producers have picked up on his vocal science recently). on his Myspace page you can hear last year's "Like a Fire" and the aforementioned "Far Away", which is wonderful as usual.

― Mind Taker, Thursday, 16 February 2006 20:44 (7 years ago) Permalink

Skipping 150 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

noize board LEO LEO

― the late great, Tuesday, 11 September 2012 03:35 (8 months ago) Permalink

Leonardo Music Journal -- Awesome!!

― the late great, Tuesday, 11 September 2012 03:36 (8 months ago) Permalink

ok got it. was not aware of that thread. v useful 2 know.

― The Reverend, Tuesday, 11 September 2012 04:05 (8 months ago) Permalink

now we will never speak of it again

― the late great, Tuesday, 11 September 2012 04:19 (8 months ago) Permalink

word

― The Reverend, Tuesday, 11 September 2012 04:21 (8 months ago) Permalink