| L.A. based IDM auteur Daedelus (Alfred Weisberg-Roberts) continues to display the inventiveness of his namesake with his latest album. Sun drenched horns, syrupy 60s strings, a quick-changing beat: it's a spy movie you can dance to. Unlike the more structured sound of his previous work, this is looser and faster. There's still the signature Daedelus elements: bleeps, honks, and analog clatter that nearly trip over themselves in unsteady rhythms. If one didn’t already know, the Windsor McKay cover of the album tips off his infatuation with older styles. Pulpy narration and tension-raising strings cut directly to the chase of the spy movie as the album begins. "At my heels" is the kind of catchy that will prompt a finger to hover over the repeat button. Samples liberally fill the album with the color of the tropics and South American beats mingle on the dance floor. Fast clapping drives the congos to "Sundown", so that the party can start in "Bahia", complete with his trademark bass clarinet in tow. Nearing the end of the evening, the dance floor shrinks and becomes more intimate, losing none of the intensity. "Lights Out" resists the end of the day, pairing seductive strings and mellower sounds with a petulant honking whine. The begrudging slide into sleep comes afterwards, in contrast to the peaks of energy at the start and end of the album. “Like Clockwork Springs” starts as more of a head nodder until it slowly blooms into a booty shaker, a trend that continues into "Nouveau Nova." Pitch bending makes “Sawtooth EKG” undulate as if in a dream. “Samba Legrand” is like a memory of a samba, stripped down and slightly blurry. Its darker tones prefigure “Dreamt of Drowning”, which feels like hearing “I Love Lucy” from the bottom of a well. “Our Last Stand” is the most atmospheric piece, evoking a friendly night out with friends, while “Patent Pending” sits between two or more radio stations on the dial. The album returns to the spy movie mood with a Bond-like riff spread all over "Never none the wiser". "Petit Samba" comes in with horn riffs that announce the dawn of “Sunrise.” The latter track has the video game melody and skittering rhythm sewn together by strings that recall "A Mashnote" off the 2001 Dublab Presents: freeways compilation on Emperor Norton, the track that first got Daedelus noticed. The album comes back to the retrofuture with the final track, "Viva Vida". The lesson here is that the present is the place to be, all the better to pluck the best from the past. - Urban Pollution |
2XLP/Out Of Print