Daedelus - Percussionlab - Jan 2007

Biography of Daedelus

Daedelus, the eccentric, electronic maestro of the Pacific coast returns with 'Exquisite Corpse' his most complete and baffling record to date. One of LA's most daring new artists this young musical romantic weaves together a true 'love-sound' that falls between honeyed melody and avant-electronics. Daedelus chops and splices disparate acoustic sources into incredible works of staggering resonance. Contrasting IDM styled cut-ups with childlike arrangements from the 30's and 40's, he has refined a style that has no imitators. Exactly the kind of music you’d expect from a scarily well-connected hip hop nut who happens to dress in Edwardian clothing and names himself after an Ancient Greek Legend.

The album title, as well as the idea, is taken from the old Surrealist game in which a group of random French crazies and intellectuals write down part of a sentence, fold the page and pass it on to the next - 'Consequences' without the consequences. Or if that doesn't make sense, how about this? 'A kind of collective collage of words or images' ('Dada & Surrealist Art' by William S.Rubin).

And there's definitely a collective at work here, Daedelus' trademark musicality running up against a slather of maverick talent from the worlds of hip hop and beyond. The performances range from traditional (MF Doom, Sci from Scienz of Life) to poetic (Mike Ladd, CYNE, Laura Darling) to experimental (Prefuse 73, Hrishikesh Hirway of The One AM Radio, TTC, Jogger), but Daedelus moulds the seemingly disparate elements of sound with a single-minded vision.

With a body of work including releases through Mush, Plug Research, Hefty, Tigerbeat6, and Eastern Developments, Daedelus' rep is long since established. At last he has given us the record about which journalists can use the word 'surreal' without being lazy. And for this alone we must all be thankful.