Early Day Miners

When looking for inspiration in music, it’s sometimes hard to push through the stylistic wall that the artist has already put up in place. It could simply be a decision to record entirely on toy instruments, but the harder the journey is to hack through the idiosyncrasies to get to the true payoff, the more likely the album is to be unsuccessful. Really, how many people actually like Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music? Early Day Miners (aka Daniel Burton) have always had a somewhat clinical exterior that, at first blush, is hard to get past. The songs, while good, don’t give great emotional rewards and it all comes out so-so. Not this time, people. Offshore is perfectly realised and exudes warmth that invites the listener to really embrace Burton’s ideas. From the female voice on "Return of the Native” to the ambient rock of "Land of Pale Saints,” this could be Burton’s perfect intersection of ambition and execution. It is the slow burn of "Hymn Beneath the Palisades” that really shines, though. This instrumental soars on its subtle rise in volume to a major-chord climax that rings with sincerity. It is records like Offshore for which the word "sublime” was invented.