| On his latest Mush outing, Alfred Weisberg-Roberts shifts the focus from the hip-hop of Exquisite Corpse to a warped Mambo King cha-cha. Eschewing collaborations altogether, the producer takes listeners on a dizzying 15-song roller-coaster ride that presents a decidedly flattering portrait of his eccentric genius. As the title suggests, the release orients itself around a late-night theme, not one centered on dreams and sleep but rather joyous nightclubbers fervently intent on denying day’s end. The material’s Latin and Caribbean rhythmic essence might suggest kinship with Señor Coconut, but the similarities are largely superficial, as Daedelus’s experimental, collage-oriented sambas have little in common with Atom Heart’s Latinized Kraftwerk and Deep Purple covers. Denies the Day’s Demise offers one surprise after another. “Nouveau Nova” sprays acid fever over driving bossa nova beats, a bass clarinet’s froggy croak clears a path through raucous dance churn on “Bahia,” and the euphoric “Our Last Stand” plunges into a smeared synth swamp of blistered throbs and skittering thrum. “Like Clockwork Springs” boasts a larger arcade quotient than is typically heard in Daedelus’s work, but the bleepy cut shimmies and shakes jubilantly nonetheless. The swinging lounge cocktail “Lights Out” shows he hasn’t wholly abandoned his hip-hop inclinations, while the tongue-in-cheek tomfoolery of “At My Heels” reveals he hasn’t lost his sense of humor either. Weisberg-Roberts even sings, serenading the listener home on the gentle closer “Viva Vida.” Daedelus’ music contains multitudes, sometimes to such a degree it threatens to collapse under its own weight: an excess of see-sawing orchestral samples on “Dreamt of Drowning,” for example. Nevertheless, the exotic dance elements on Denies perfectly complement Daedelus’s longstanding jones for old-school recordings. Brace yourself, though, for an exhausting trip, as Weisberg-Roberts packs an avalanche of ideas into this captivating disc’s 50 minutes. - Grooves |
2XLP/Out Of Print