Der Geruch auf dem Polizei

Principal Participant - Fragrance Polizei

I first wrote about the mysterious Principal Participant on this blog back in 2007 when his identity was still being kept under wraps. I think I made some quip about it being "the side project of a mythical electronic artist". Well, now the cat is out of the bag, or rather, the minotaur is out of the maze - ahem - as it is now common knowledge that the man behind these gloriously funky techno sounds is none other than that "sad electronic hero" David Edwards aka Minotaur Shock.

David released two twelves as PP on the Part One imprint in 2007, as well as remixing Bloc Party, The Cribs and Blitzen Trapper. Things were all quiet on the PP front until September when he gave away a three-track Principal Participant download EP via the Minotaur Shock mailing list, featuring the three original PP tracks to be released so far - 'Wonderful', 'Principles' and 'Fragrance Polizei'.

It's absolutely top-notch gear - I'm posting 'Fragrance Polizei', a wonderful hybrid of early-Human League synthpop and Harthouse techno circa 1992 - gorgeous, twitchy, melodic, bleepy, banging, jackin' techno music. And as with everything David does, the more time you spend with it, the more you get back. I love the little drum fills and that hands in the air moment when the melody first drops. My only complaint (which is a common one from me) is that it should go on for another three minutes at least. It builds up such a wicked groove that I'm always disappointed when it's over so soon - then again, I usually just head back to the beginning again.

According to the PP website, David is working on a debut album, which is very exciting news indeed. He has also said that he may make some more of the unreleased PP material available for download soon, so if you dig it, best to join the mailing list here (scroll to the bottom of the page and enter your email).

Principal Participant website
Principal Participant MySpace
Minotaur Shock website