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CD Feature/ Mad EP: "The Madlands Trilogy"

  Tobias

How ambitious does an experimental artist need to be? If pop stars like Christina Aguilera are releasing concept works of epic proportions nowadays, a simple double album won’t do any more. Nor will detailed audio diaries or mixing styles like Starbucks coffee flavours. Consequently, if an artist like Mad EP, who has already been credited with changing the horizon of contemporary music, sets out to redefine the parameters of what is possible and still comprehensible, it takes a humungous effort like “The Madlands Trilogy” to succeed.

Sp brace yourself for an album spanning three individual discs, all packed to the brim with ideas, solo sessions, collaborational efforts, remixes, dubs, group jams, electronica, free-, smooth., new- and out-of-your-mind-jazz, house beats, hip hop grooves, ethereal choirs, voices, instrumentals, recorded phone messages, cutting edge material and short tracks featuring nothing but a violin and a cello. Nothing short of a curriculum vitae of Mad EP and the story of seven years spent in five different cities, this tryptich is so vast and full of hidden meanings, that it must seem an impossible task to describe its content in a review. Decoding the hidden messages, savouring the beauty and appreciating the madness will take ages even for those prepared to dive headlong into the winding hallways of this colourful and yet somehow alien and at first uncomfortable cosmos. What mainly makes this a simultaneously intriguing and intimidating encounter is the fact that the three segments of the trilogy are not as clearly seperated from each other in terms of mood and stylistic outreach as, say, old Neil Young records with their acoustic and electric sides. Yes, “Player Piano”, the first disc, may be slightly more mellow and sweet than the others, “One Chelydridaen Night” more atmospheric and catatonic and “Damaged Goods” more freaked-out and psychedelic, but these are just faint indications at what to expect and really, everything flows in and out of each other without border or a superimposed scheme, going from the first tracks this man ever recorded to his most recent ones and guiding the listener through sceneries of intense majesty and bewildering strangeness.

It would be easy and beguiling to classify this as a grand avantgarde efort, but its unqueness stems exactly from its quasi-popular nature. You do not need a degree in science or musical theory to understand this, all it requires is some patience. In its heart of hearts, this is a very relaxed album, which can be played as a background to stimulated discussions or with each CD or even track on its own. If you like, “The Madlands Trilogy” is so exciting exactly by not trying to be ambitious at all.

By Tobias Fischer

Homepage: Mad EP
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