Last week, me and M decided to go at the last minute to see
Daedelus who was playing at the
Low End Theory club here in downtown LA, a great venue held at the airliner club and run by one of our favorite dubstep/psychedelic dj's
The Gaslamp Killer. it was a great billing, with resident DJs
Daddy Kev,
Nobody, and
D Styles playing with
Free The Robots and Daedelus Headlining, we'd already missed seeing Daedelus play twice this summer so, we thought we better not miss this show. And boy was it well worth going, not only was it one of the dopest venues in LA, it turned out to be one of the best concerts ive been to. We rolled up about an hour in, walked in while D Styles was playing some pretty cool tracks, it was a pretty intimate space, white room above a bar with a balcony/back area where you could chill with some of the artists. it was insanely hot in that club, but it didn't get to you that much, the music was just too awesome, Up until Daedelus an MC (i think
MC Nocando) was rapping alongside the DJs and was really great. The venue was definitely made for the fans cause its got great sound, intimate venue at the heart of the scene, LA where you can meet some of the artists too, its very casual and alot of fun. Anyways D Styles played some pretty cool tracks mostly experimental hip-hop, i distinctly remember being surprised by a
Mulatu Astatke track, this ethiopian jazz artist who i'd heard of through a Jarmusch soundtrack(sry if it was nobody who played this track). Next came Nobody with some straight up hip-hop, and it was alot of fun too, Daddy Kev though came in and destroyed with some hard hitting dubstep, but everything was still kept at like a chill-out/trippy atmosphere most of the night.
The energy definitely picked up another level once free the robots came on, we'd seen him once before and i was impressed, he's like another flying lotus stylistically, and apparently he had prepared something good that night, he really out did himself, someone to look out for. Then while were waiting for Daedelus to come on, I think he was late, so some of the other DJs were playing while we waited, then suddenly Daedelus cuts between me and M and everyone starts going crazy, i was expecting a pretty relaxed night, but i could not help from dancing most of the time, i'm pretty sure there was never a point when he was not mixing atleast two songs together, and his transitions were flawless. It was a pretty fast tempoed set like 140, with these awesome mixes creating this otherworldy beauty out of the mindblowing chaos of beats. He would essentially create like original songs with his mixing, like even creating build-ups with the way he was mixing in songs, how he was layering them, if you hear him you'll understand what i mean. Some of the highlights were hearing his mix of bullion and oizo (which you can hear in the accompanying mix) live as well as when he dropped M83's Slowly, that was epic. From what i can tell, he is amazing at what he does, playing tracks like they were notes on a piano, he had no headphones and was really rocking out stuff on this awesome device he has called a monome, apparantly he does things on the fly too, just wow. One of the must see shows out there. Really just an extraordinary DJ and Producer. People were flipping out. You can get a pretty good feel of what his set was like from this attached mix, you also get to see what daddy kev is like too, though its a bit different from what he plays live. Anyways, Daedelus is a must see show if he's coming by a place near you. enjoy the mix, you can get more at the low end theory site
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I'd Also like to add how much i enjoyed hearing Oizo dropped more than a few times that night, especially analog worms.
BONUS TRACKS:
Daedelus' latest album came out pretty much exactly a month ago now on Brainfeeder, artfully crafted as always, but doesn't really hold up to his last couple albums, don't get me wrong, but theres nothing very hard hitting about the album, got some amazingly trippy, dreamy, ethereal must-have tracks, but it lacks the energy of his last album, in fact it never really brings the energy up at any point, that said its full of Daedelus' trademark celestial guitar pluckings and ghostly whispers, beautiful record for what it is, 'An Armada Approaches', 'Order of the Golden Dawn', and 'Fin De Siecle' are the really stand out tracks. Anyways it's only seven songs, and you can pretty much count on anything from Daedelus being awesome, so grab and enjoy this one ( great album cover too, no?)>
