Following our recent interview with personal hero and DJ legend Mr.Scruff, I was immediately inspired to track down another member of the Ninja Tune roster. One of my favourites of all time, and one of the most interesting musicians I’ve ever come across. Since first purchasing his debut LP ‘Denies The Days Demise’ it’s been a mesmorising journey following the work of our most recent interviewee, and if you haven’t heard of him… treat yourself! Here’s my recent conversation with Daedelus.

How long have you been Dj’ing & creating music?

 http://www.facebook.com/Daedelusmusic?fref=ts

https://twitter.com/daedelus_music

http://daedelusmusic.com

Words by Stuart Green (@mojo20_music)

The title “Bespoke,” (referring to an item custom-made to specification) proceeds outright to create a thematic support (let’s stay away from concept album) upon which Daedelus hangs a self-styled melodic couture in the  fashion most befitting his stage persona.  Why do we choose to focus our first musical review on Dadelus’ latest full-length?  Here we are, and so it is.  A catalyst can be found in the spur of the moment. Presently, the dub-disco-dance landscape provides ample example of the values and pitfalls to many of these Los Angeles acts and we’ve arrived at a time when we can stand back and assess these recent statements from the Dadelusverse. The onset of wet, reverberating sounds signal “Tailor-Made”, from the ether drawn, like a late 80′s dancestep right out of… some cosmetic ad?  The general air of artifice seems to play intentionally and reminds of something like the androgynous decals I used to see ornamenting my aunt’s hair salon circa ’91.  As it advances, the track segues into a melodic, 606-percussive disco before swirling into its full spell of inebriation.

“Sew, Darn, Mend” (have we caught the running motif here?) follows-suit as a strum/plucked theme giving way to baroque keys with a pomp circumstanced in the narrative of electronic blips, hinting at the sort of synthetic post-classical found on older tracks such as “Never None the Wiser” without reaching the feverish summits of the latter.  ”Penny Loafers,” another staggered dance number after the theme, follows in counterpoint to Inara Georges’ samba vox/pop-choir in a call/response format.

“One and Loney” with Young Dad, falls to my ear as the album equivalent of a fill between measured drum hits. The off-beat percussion eventually comes in like a belated reprisal in interest leaving us just short of the gravitational collaborations of previous records such as “Exquisite Corpse.” “Suit Yourself” instills a renewed interest in brassy, grandiose breath-supported sound. The flutter of notes resembles the ornamental cufflinks on a coat. Although, we’re not sure how well the high concept plays here, hitting more like inorganic sounds and midi renditions of the desired effect, eventually realised when the music gives way to what is assumed to be the sample that inspired the piece. Lyrical, operatic falsettos continue Darlington’s light-headed, heavenly locale in a similar vein to the sleeper, “A Complicated Geometry.” As if on cue, “What Can You Do” follows in a rematch with longtime collaborator, Busdriver. The keys act more as a percussive ingredient which again reminds of the 80′s Top 40 producers that seemed to blare out of elevators of the time. If the motivation here is a kind of kitsch, we can’t value it a merit. For all the forays into dance, we are merely left wanting the previous clipped, hiccuping-beats of “Just Briefly.”

“French Cuffs” with Dadelus’ protégé of sorts, Baths, doesn’t seem to show any of the latter’s unique, detail-orientated, bitcrushed electronics except, perhaps, in an accelerated drum beat propelling the song forward. Piano notes trail-in as if from far away, doused in reverb. The track slithers with filmic strings serenading this meeting of minds. “In Tatters” with Kelela Mizanekristos comes as a requisite downbeat accompanied by minimal synths, seemingly to fill-out the album’s central theme. This is a good point to appreciate how the artist attempts to provide the full rise and dip of a great album ride, however, with a track like “In Tatters” we see exemplified the abrupt standstill of the idea just short of execution to fall in the domain of formula. “Slowercase D” then takes over as one of the album’s deliberately paced pieces. Peanut butter BPMs more accustomed to Witchhouse/Drag albums allow us to savor each wave of three-dimensional melody. I was fortunate enough to listen to another, faster-paced version of this song a few years back as it was still in gestation. This new version displays a subdued approach to the archetype of the circus and the entire sonic spectacle found therein.

“Overwhelmed” with Bilal comes as a burst of motion when juxtaposed against what has come before. The “over, over” hook holds our interest with a gravity that sits right next to previous Daedelus tracks to have garnered radio play. “Nightcap” closes up the LP  with a fitting, swoony, albeit, predicted send off.  The “I want to sleep” mantra stops somehow, just short of the “I Only Have Eyes For You” endorphin bliss off a similar sample-driven track, “Drop.”

While displaying more idiosyncratic-flourishes than contemporaries such as Diplo or Mount Kimbie, Daedelus shows with this most recent record, the summation of his strivings to mine a near if not virgin territory at the expense of carrying a cohesive voice to the readily available masses that Flying Lotus has found. For this particular record, I found myself vehemently disagreeing with the Pitchfork review. The critical collective have made a point to pick apart the works of Los Angeles acts I have stood by over the years such as Daedelus and Ariel Pink in favor of less pioneering bands like No Age and WAVVES.

Pitchfork seems to have come around to Alfred Darlington’s work with this latest offering, seeing in it a marked leap in uniformity but I can only guess that they’ve missed certain career highpoints which better fit the description. The debut, “Invention,” contains within it all the aims of “Bespoke” in terms of exemplifying the artist’s signature musical tapestry in an auteur fusion of expression and form. Unfortunately, this first record seems to have exhausted the most breathless selections of Daedelus’ sample library. The other standout LP we would point to is the breadth and confidence of style in “Denies the Days Demise.” This watershed record, with its mixture of bitcrushed electronics and Central American dance stylings seemed to come to me at just the right time. I can still remember the champagne-tipsiness induced by spinning the single, “Sundown,” which a love interest gave to me as a gift. It’s true, I could have been under the spell of some other charmer but the record still holds up best for me as the pinnacle in Daedelus’ output. I’ve had the privilege of telling Alfred as much in-person. I’m not sure if he was convinced.