No doubt, Minor Obsessions, the third album by Irish producer Corrugated Tunnel aka Edwin James, is an ambitious attempt to oscillate in the pop and underground continuum. Besides the deep and solid house and tech grooves that form the foundation, the vocals from various guest vocalists also play a major role at times, generating intriguing contrasts and surprises.
Whilst the 12-track journey begins in a proper dancefloor-oriented fashion with the lush synth lines and pumping beats of Festival as well as the fluid and trancey melodies of Fade Away, vocals soon start to make an impact, as on Cabin Fever, the melancholic voice of Deborah Kay is coupled with the deep and Detroit-influenced techno rhythm. Threadbare then sees the mellow vocals by Martin McCann intertwine with the moody strings and piano riffs, as well as the forceful beats which render a surge in energy level after mid-section.
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After the Spanish guitar-embedded Keep The Change and hypnotic tech affair Ambidextrous, there comes Remedy For My Soul, the catchiest track of the album. Featuring a poppish delivery from Antoinette Dunleavy atop the disco tinged groove, it easily pushes the album towards the pop side of the pop-underground continuum. Shine On, a warm deep house track led by the fluid vocals from D’mia, then steers it back to the other side a bit, before the 1-minute long interlude Cuckoo offers some minimal tech flavour.
With Time Machine we’re right at the heart of the dancefloor, as the richly textured synth layers and solid tech beats form a driving and psychedelic tech progression. Grand and energising, it’s arguably the best part of the album. After that Dunleavy returns in a deeper form with the housey affair The Rejection; and it’s followed by the instrumental finale Transist, which wraps up the album with streams of blissful and melodious synths.
Although there are quite a few sonic elements here, the lush quality is sustained throughout the album and it’s coherent most of the time. One concern, however, is that whilst it’s undoubtedly well crafted and tracks like Remedy For My Soul and Time Machine are able to attract very different audiences, has the former gone way too far and thus diminished the album’s appeal to the more (underground) club-oriented fans? Or is it the other way round, i.e. the pop elements have lifted the album to another level? At the end of the day it seems to be a matter of personal taste here, and we’ll leave it for you to decide yourselves.