by Colin Buttimer
05 June 2008
Daedalus is one Alfred Darlington, a prolific Santa Monica producer, currently part of the Ninja Tune stable. Love To Make Music To is the current offering after a heavily-laden, diverse and erratic back-catalogue. The diverse nature of this nominally electronic artist stems from his skills as a multi-instrumentalist. This album sees him remaining true to form.
It opens with Fair Weather Friends; an upbeat poppy number, replete with handclaps, swarming synths and an agreeably emancipated sample. It comes on like Boards of Canada on uppers, which is no bad thing. Make It So continues in a similarly genial vein with what sounds like a choir's worth of multitracked singers.
Twist The Kids sounds tremendously 80s with its tongue in cheek, rapped vocals and lo-fi, analogue rhythm. It could be the illegitimate child of Suicide and Mantronik, and coming after the denser preceding tracks, is a welcome bit of minimalism. Get Off Your HiHats features tumbling piano figures, married to speeding tinpot percussion that suddenly takes a left turn into Miami Vice analogue funkiness, a minute before the end.
Hrs:Mins:Secs is built on some fine left-field samples that tumble together, clash and repeat in a satisfyingly chaotic fashion. It's a little reminiscent of Klaxons, but with added synths and beatboxes, as well as the guest vocals of Erika Rose and Paperboy. In fact, six of the fifteen songs here feature guest singers, a line-up which includes Om'mas Keith and Taz of the Sa-Ra Foundation.
Love To Make Music To feels a little exhausting by the end of its 55-minute duration and would have benefited from a bit of judicious pruning. Despite that, it's an enjoyably varied album, full of texture, emotion and playful ideas.
enjoy!
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