Mint - Cardboard Rocketships

MINT - CARDBOARD ROCKETSHIPS (BOLTFISH)

I’m a little wary in giving fulsome praise to music that I feel is somewhat steeped in nostalgia, and as such it’s with difficulty that I try to review an album like this. Murray Fisher’s Boltfish label has been producing electronica that is arguably as British as it comes, quite similar in a haunting way to the material on Ghostbox, and produced by men who I guess were tinged by the hand of Warp era rave before retreating to their studios once Autechre got a bit too difficult for their liking. That, of course is somewhat of a massive generalisation, but it’s hard to see past the narcissistic influence of IDM like Boards of Canada, Booth and Brown and ad nauseam at times on this scene.

In their defence Boltfish have never stated that their sound is anything more than that, tending to err on the side of esoteric cinematic soundtracks and little corners of electronic musings. Murray Fisher’s MINT project, which has been fairly prolific since its inception, emerges with another well-produced and wide range of moods and atmospheres across a 12 song album. It’s the darker aspects that work better, as tracks like “System Cost” and “Dead Pixel” seem to carry more drive and soul above the more upbeat offerings, although my favourite “Personal Spaces”, whilst in debt to BOC, is wrapped up in the most delightful treated piano, and “Grace” is pastoral electronica at its height. Fans of the more dancefloor side of things might like the scattering pulses of “Aquarius” and the album’s opener “I don’t Kvetch”.

On the whole though, I found “Cardboard Rocketships” hard to warm to, with no real sense of purpose or edge beyond a tidily arranged album of UK electronica. Although composition and structure are immaculate, there just seemed to be a lack of innovation or surprises beyond the glazed sheen of production. I have said before that Boltfish are just an album away from greatness, but this isn’t it quite yet.

Toby Frith