| Exquiste Corpse (a sequential collaborative process in which each successive contributor is only allowed to see the very end of the previous addition before adding his or her own) is Santa Monica artificer of sound Daedelus's most collaborative effort to date, with the likes of MF Doom and Mike Ladd on board. Completing the double entendre, the album uses a motif or montage of death and related imagery as its unifying principle. In doing so, Daedalus informs the world that hip-hop - the category in which Daedelus's uniquely arranged, densely-packed beat-driven sound best fits - can offer elegies far more involved that merely pouring some out for one's homies. Adhering to habit, Daedalus uses primarily analog samples of 1950's cocktail-lounge singers, ancient-sounding 1920s and 30's piano and organ notes and cheesily ambiguous post-war string arrangements as source material. Put in front of a simple snare-and-cymbal beat or a bossa-nova percussion sample, the sound of Exquiste Corpse is more akin to classical elegy rather than a Gothic dirge: a welcome surprise as nothing is worse than a melodramatic hip-hop record. And the material is no Antigone, either. After a few minutes of instrumentals to set the mood, MF Doom's rapid fire and witty opener "Impending Doom" mates a frantic, frenetic backbeat to his signature flow, with a string sample to keep the mood slightly mellow. Two versions of "Welcome Home" hint at some sort of an authentic cadavre exquis; a glitch-heavy beatdown that is unmistakably Prefuse 73, and a typically thoughtful and esoteric Mike Ladd poem, read over the original Daedalus beat: "Another shoe, another day / As long as it doesn't fall I'm ok / Welcome home." "i. Sent Off" is the closest Exquiste Corpse comes to more typical electronic music, the strings-and-singer opening duet fading into a dance-club worthy crescendo of gyrating beats. Among the more notable guest appearances is the pleasing sleeper "Drops" featuring obscure Cyne, laying a heartfelt rap over a relaxing jazz-inspired loop. The album's zenith is "The Crippled Hand" a six-minute tour de force that showcases Daedelus's ability to do whatever he wants with any conceivable sound, from Andean pan flutes to clipper-ship era pennywhistles. In Greek mythology, Daedelus's skill as an inventor was legendary, able to manipulate anything with dexterity and aplomb. It's hard to think of a more appropriate moniker for the hip-hop Daedalus. - The Brainwashed Brain |
1XLP/Out Of Print