Many artists would pay to have the problem that L.A. beat scene veteran Daedelus has-- a surplus of ideas. Accordingly, his albums, including his newest effort Drown Out, can seem like they have multiple personalities, jam-packed with ideas that don’t necessarily jive. Drown Out is Daedelus’s first record for Anticon-- he hops from label to label as easily as he hops concepts-- but rather than displaying any artistic growth, he seems to be settling back into his old ways*.*
That’s not to say that the moods he does settle on, however briefly, aren’t lovely. The back-to-back punch of “Tiptoes,” and “Frisson,” sets the listener up to think he’s in for a certain kind of experience: one in which heavy, head-nodding beats eventually give way to an elevation of angelic treble during songs’ climax. The standout “Tiptoes”-- with its unabashedly operatic sample-- is one of the prettiest beats I’ve heard all year.
Unfortunately, the curtain drops on that mood as “Perpetually", which sounds like a combination of EDM and Motown, takes the stage. It’s not a bad track, but it’s jolting to hear something that has so little in common with what came before it. Then there are the ideas that should never have been indulged. “Keep Still,” makes mincemeat of 2Pac’s “I Get Around.” The sample simply doesn’t belong in a mess of a song, which, at times, can sound as if it’s parodying the “bleep blorp” sound that people unfamiliar with electronic music use to mock it.
There have been exceptions to Daedelus’ displays of musical ADD. His EP Righteous Fists of Harmony was a smooth, thematically-linked listen. And Live at Low End Theory showed him in his element-- as a live performer, linked to his the crowd, where spontaneity and improvisation allow a performance to be crafted according to the whims of the listener. In interviews, Daedelus raves about the importance of the live experience, and Drown Out sounds as if it might have been conceptualized as more grist for the live show.
Another pair of linked singles later on Drown Out hints that that’s the case. “Music Concrete” and “-Ísimo” sound like the A and B side to a traditional dance singles. As that’s the world that Daedelus is most used to, it’s no wonder that he still seems to shudder and shift when confronted with the album format.
Many of Daedelus’ fellows have shown an ability to ditch the dance paradigm and make cohesive albums. But the dapper dandy has always stayed true to his roots-- he simply can’t stay still long enough to put together a collection of complementary songs. Drown Out has plenty of sublime moments, but as each of them has little do with any other it ends up sounding less like an album and more like a grab bag of hurried ideas, the best of which will eventually be experienced somewhere far more immediate.
