Released in late December of 2009, Bay Area producer Edison’s All the Information at Hand stands out as one of the more enjoyable releases of the year. Glitchy, percussive, ambient, but never too laid back to enjoy on a good set of headphones or have on the stereo as you do your day to day. What can be best described as instrumental hip-hop, arguably the musical backbeat of this decade, Edison’s work stands not just on it’s own but also in reference to what has come before. Performed on a Monome (think of a MPC with 64 pads) with both sourced and created samples, tracks such as “The Surface, and Under” and “The Great Houdini’s Computer” have that ‘gotta listen again’ quality and the songs endure quite well once the initial thrill has subsided.
The music presented here doesn’t directly point to influence from the likes of Jel, Boom Bip, DJ Shadow, or Blockhead, but the comparisons definitely come to mind. The only lull on the album comes on “Dig Ditch Anthem” which features members of Edison’s other group, Paperheart. Depending on if you’re in the pre-Aesop Rock or post-Aesop Rock period of your life, you may find it to be the only track you’ll skip regularly. Even then, it’s not a deal breaker. In a year where many musicians seemed to do what they thought was expected instead of a good album, All the Information at Hand is wholly refreshing.
Basically, I agree with you. I posted a review of this album back on the release date (Dec. 22) and came to, pretty much, the exact conclusions in mine as you have.