 |
MH-232 Daedelus - Exquisite Corpse  The new release from Daedelus, Exquisite Corpse is an ode to, and a lament for hip-hop culture. Featuring solo contributions and collaborative efforts with guests whose 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), Daedelus forms the seemingly disparate elements of sound found on the album with a single-minded vision. The album's title has a triple meaning: a reference to death, a grand body of work, and the Impressionist group drawing game of the same name. The guest MCs and vocalists contrast their own styles with Daedelus' sugar-laden undercoating proving that there are no limits to what can be included on a hip-hop album. |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reviews Summary |
| Exciting - Pitchfork / Terrific proof of the underground’s vitality - Rockpile / Alive from beginning to end - Mean Street / A master mortician - CMJ / Full of humor, brains, passion and breathtaking sounds - All Music Guide / Mad and beautiful, beautiful and mad - Big Chill |
| Reviews | |
|
| MF Doom also shows up as one of many guests on Exquiste Corpse by similarly prolific US West Coast artist Daedelus, which is scheduled for an early March release. Having already established himself with unique projects for labels like Kid 606's Tigerbeat6, Scott Herren's Eastern Developments and Plug Research, Daedelus is another artist from the edge of the hip-hop stratosphere who deserves more attention. He combines moments of astonishing beauty with electronic and acoustic kookery - samples from the 30s and 40s are twisted into intricate arrangements, sugarcoated surprise songs and off-kilter lullabies. Comparisons with Herren's Prefuse 73 outfit are inevitable, especially as he guest produces "Welcome Home," but the only relevant similarity is that they are both taking the hip-hop aesthetic and successfully perverting and paying homage to it by expertly polluting the gene pool. Daedelus's signature style is distinctive enough to shine alongside contributions from the ever-poetic Mike Ladd, Cyne and Sci's more conventional wordplay and Laura Darling's sinister yet soothing tones on "Now & Sleep." The combination of eerie samples from a less plundered era of music with glitchy brushstrokes, played instruments and adventurous programming is genuinely inspired, and perhaps at its most potent when no guests are involved at all and the music is simply speaking for itself. Light years away from the Bronx and beatboxing, Daedelus is exploring hip-hop's twilight zone and his superb findings are often as surreal as the album's title suggests. - New Zealand Listener |
1XLP/Out Of Print