Brainfeeder-member, Dublab-affiliator, table-top-gamer, spotlight-hogger in a Vicotiran dress, with more than a dozen LPs and EPs in his bag: The producer from Los Angeles by the name of Daedelus is a solitaire amongst the league of beat-smiths. His new studio-release is taking place in his Californian hometown yet again – it’s being released at Anticon and is called »Drown Out«. Once again, Daedelus does what hardly anyone else knows how to: He artistically combines diverging sound-snippets to a single entity and creates something you won’t find at many other places. All that happens in such a playful manner that no annoying top-heavyness comes up. The melodies range between catchy and absurd, between gripping and frolicsome; they meet unconsumed samples and drumscapes, deriving from electronic tinkerings and breakbeats. At the same time, the album functions as a bridge between Daedelus’ earlier stuff and the two LPs he released at Ninja tunes. »Drown Out« doesn’t foreground the jazz as much as »A Gent Agent« or »Exquisite Corps« did. Instead, the nervously fiddling beat-experiments point back to those roots. Tracks like »Tiptoes« and »At Attentions« are both energetic and meditative, and everything is covered by a soft veil of melancholy, in which Daedelus gets completely absorbed, manically yet meticulously. That’s probably the reason why the record is so damn good at its best moments.
Drown Out
