The 1981 Listening Post - Minimal Man - The Shroud Of...

 Minimal Man - The Shroud Of...    

#208

May 1981

Minimal Man

The Shroud Of…

Genre: Experimental

4 out of 5

Highlights:

Loneliness

High Why

You Are

“Ronald Reagan, I agree!” Patrick Miller howls on “Loneliness” and I know that’s not true. It’s a scream of ironic desperation and pain. That’s what a lot of this album sounds like. Howls from a person going through Beat Poetry/Scream therapy. And thy hypnotic trance of “High Why” and “You Are” almost feels like Orwellian indoctrination. And nothing lasts too long, which is often a problem with this kind of stuff. I’ll be damned if he wasn’t mainlining The Residents at some point during conceiving “Hatemonger”. 

You either dig this stuff (the best Residents) or you hate it (the worst Tuxedomoon). This is diggable. But mainly if you want to hear the sounds of a nervous breakdown put to…music?

https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-shroud-of-remastered/305298400

The 1984 Listening Post - Minimal Man - Safari

Minimal Man - Safari

#339
1984 Housekeeping
Minimal Man
Safari
3.5 out of 5

Highlights:
Shadows Pay a Visit

There is so little information about Minimal Man save that they shared members with Tuxedomoon on occasion.
I really enjoyed much of the latter's output but this feels dull to me.
Plodding and unremarkable, I can hear echoes of Gary Numan every so often but not enough to latch on to anything.
It touches on industrial but also dance and never really commits to either.
But, then, on a dime, abut halfway through, it becomes something different. "Shadows Pay a Visit" and then the haunting "What's Not There" reminded me of the road one might take if Joy Division had been able to continue on their path. The road that leads to, say Crocodiles.

People spent time in a room making this record. It's part of who they are. It's their memories. I bet they talk about it with friends or reminisce late at night about their creative process.

"People used to make records as in the record of an event. The event of people playing music in a room."
Ani Difranco

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/safari/351964496