Since the release of his 2002 debut, Invention, I have been quick to purchase, post-haste and unheard, any album bearing Daedelus' name. The album's sound, largely sourced from old 78s, created one of the more unique sounds in IDM this decade, and worked primarily due to his clear respect for the material: he never aimed to displace so much as a crackle, fearing he might disrupt the musty spirit of the samples that attracted him to them in the first place. It hasn't hurt that his sense of humor has always shone through as well, from last year's brief Household EP, to the quirky avant-nostalgic production behind the Busdriver & Radioinactive's The Weather.
But something's happened. Late 2003's Rethinking the Weather, a Daedelus-spawned remix of his work on the aforementioned Busdriver & Radioinactive LP, was atrocious-- a lukewarm, unfocused (and unnecessary) compilation of reworked material that lacked both enthusiasm and creativity. And now the guy's collaborated with Dublab's Frosty to schlep together a lazy, mindless and utterly tedious waste of plastic and good cover art titled Dreams of Water Themes. I don't know what to think anymore.
If a song doesn't plan on having a compelling structure, the composer ought to attempt to make each moment of the song-- by variety, or some hook, or some curious sound-- compelling in its stead. Adventure Time seem to disregard their only responsibility to the listener, namely, to spare him of boredom. And this oversight is most obvious when their debut tracks reach their climax, as they often do, within the first thirty seconds of the song, then bask like half-wits for anywhere from three to four more minutes with nary an alteration. In effect, one could digest the entirety of Dreams of Water Themes in a few minutes simply by clicking through each track's opening sequences and moving on to the next; this summary includes the four run-of-the-mill speech samples comprise their own tracks and add nothing to the album, except as a reminder that, if you bought this album, you totally got ripped off.
The bass, drum and bell groove of "The Age of Aquariums" is certainly promising, and nearly interesting upon a middle-eastern flute's entrance and the camp jazz vocal sample, but plateaus in energy and ideas. The Clouddead-meets-L.L. Cool J's "Phenomenon" novelty that is "Whetting Whistles" features the faux-intelligent wordsmithery of Pigeon John, who, whether he's being ironic or enacting a persona or doing whatever intelligent rappers think they're supposed to do, embarrasses himself with lines like, "There's one thing I learned on the North Hills streets/ A man has to work if a man wants to eat." Final track, "Rusty Anchors Wrestling Waves", wanders for seven minutes so aimlessly that one can only conclude it serves as the grab bag for all the samples that Daedelus and Frosty couldn't work into other tracks.
"Kappabashi" is the only track on Dreams of Water Themes that doesn't suffer from a shameful paucity of ideas, and is actually quite good. Here, the duo cooks up a distinctly 60s Blue Note feel around a minor third piano progression reminiscent of John Coltrane's "Giant Steps" that eventually settles into a blues with a spatter of strangely echoed vibraphone samples. Children play in the background every so often, and an honest trumpet drone eventually sounds in concordance with gargled strings and piccolos.
A rich and vibrant sound collage, "Kappabashi" not only comprised Adventure Time's most realized effort here, but also seemed to be the one in which both Daedelus and Frosty had much at stake emotionally. At the very least it's a tenderness that we know Daedelus is able to muster; hopefully this Adventure Time ship will dock for good.
