Vinyl Records London are on cloud nine, we are now spinning in a brand new copy in Heavyweight LP from Ed Dowie The Obvious I would sound unutterably pretty even as an instrumental album. But once you factor in a voice whosepurity has elicited comparisons to Robert Wyatt, Mark Hollis and Dean Wareham, the effect is something akin to hearing a ghost transmitting from a machine of its own makingrdquo Pete PaphideslsquoThe Obvious Irsquo, the second album from Ed Dowie, is the second new master release from Needle Mythology, the label founded by music writer, author and broadcaster Pete Paphides. In 2017, Ed released his feted debut album lsquoThe Uncle Soldrsquo, prompting The Quietus to hail him as a ldquobold and starryeyed visionaryrdquo and The Skinny to praise his ldquobeautifulhellip stolen snapshots of glimpsed futures and lost pasts.rdquo and BBC Radio 3rsquos Late Junction made the record one of their albums of the year. Now, four years on, Ed is to return with an album that will surely find him new followers alongside longtime fans such as Lauren Laverne, who described its predecessor as an ldquoabsolutely extraordinaryrdquo achievement. The Obvious I marks a pronounced evolution from Dowiersquos earlier music. Adhering to Kraftwerkrsquos maxim about achieving the maximum emotional impact by the most minimal means.The first track taken from the album Robot Joy Army is a synergy of clockwork beats and somnambulant harmonies, which brings the album to a mesmerising conclusion. Somehow itrsquos a song as apposite to cold war Russia as it is to basement dwellers in overpopulated South Korean conurbations and shift workers at Amazon Fulfilment Centres. The Obvious I is a record that would see Dowie drawing on musical lessons learned throughout his life from his childhood as a chorister in Dorset, taught to play piano by his father who himself composes choral classical 20th Century Music, to pivotal friendships made following the dissolution of his first group Brothers In Sound, when Dowie enrolled to study Music, Technology And Innovation at De Montford University in Leicester. The first module studied by Dowie during his time in Leicester introduced him to the work of minimalist composers such as Morton Feldman, Pauline Oliveros and La Monte Young. ldquoIt helped break down the barriers between what pop is and what all this other stuff is. I love the way sometimes little pockets of beautiful melodies sneak into the world of experimental music ndash Gavin Bryarsrsquo Jesusrsquo Blood Never Failed Me Yet, the songs of Cornelius Cardew, the beauty and emotion in something like Terry Rileyrsquos In C, and obviously the way the work of minimalists Philip Glass and Steve Reich seem to stray into quite sentimental areas.rdquoThe Obvious I was co produced by pioneering British experimental musician and sometime member of Polar Bear ldquoLeafcutter Johnrdquo Burton ldquoJohnrsquos become something of a hero of mine over the years. Way back when he was in Polar Bear, I approached him after a couple of gigs, and hersquod remembered me from those days. And really, his presence on the record was invaluable. He lent me equipment and gave me advice, then when I finished recording, I sent him the stems and he mixed the album.rdquoWhat ultimately emerged from these efforts ndash and what reveals itself with successive plays ndash is a beguiling process of alchemy. Each song from The Obvious I is the culmination of a beautiful process of distillation. A crystal extracted from chaos. Tumult distilled into lullaby. ldquoMy biggest battle,rdquo says Ed Dowie, ldquowas to ask myself how I can make something that reflects the turbulence of this period without adding to it.rdquo By that metric, and several more, The Obvious I is no small triumph.