Review Summary: Bespoke sees Daedelus trying to incorporate too many ideas into one small package, some of them brilliant, others tired and overused. The end result is an enjoyable product whose contrasting genres occasionally clash.
Alfred Darlington (Daedelus) has done well to avoid categorization in the music scene. His surrealist experimental style of music often manages to infuse many genres into a single song without feeling claustrophobic - a trait that many electronica artists should take note of. Daedelus’ 2005 album,
Exquisite Corpse, for example, was a meticulous blend of electronica, hip-hop and Japanese pop that heavily borrowed devalued fragments from the past (samples) and juxtaposed them with a more conventional sound to create a fresh new perspective.
Bespoke is a little different. It borrows from
Love To Make Music To’s dancier elements and makes them accessible to a broader demographic at the expense of a focused theme.
By this I mean that
Bespoke presents itself in a somewhat constrained manner, never reaching the quirky heights of albums like
Exquisite Corpse or 2010’s
Righteous Fists of Harmony and frequently coming off as awkward and secondary to its contemporaries. Daedelus’ experimental side is less explored here and what we’re left with is a spread of dancier songs and the occasional robust gem, but a lot of what’s on offer has been presented more interestingly by other artists, and by Daedelus himself. Aptly titled opener “Tailor-Made” exemplifies this because it was so clearly made for a demanding dance crowd; sure it’s harmless, but it goes nowhere and champions mediocrity with its less-than-engaging beat. ‘Sew, Darn, Mend’ steps it up a little with a feel-good synth and guitar juxtaposition but, like “Tailor-Made,” it feels aimless in the context of the album. Unfortunately the same can be said for most songs on
Bespoke; they lose focus and don’t work in conjunction with each other.
However, if approached as a collection of songs, there is some excellent material here to be salvaged. ‘Overwhelmed,’ featuring Bilal, offers a slurred vocal performance that soars above uplifting percussion instruments - it’s one of 2 songs that come close to being pigeonholed into the ‘mainstream electronica’ spectrum, but somehow it works. Sadly, the same cannot be said of “One and Lonely,” the other ‘mainstream-esque’ track that treks gaily along with a cookie-cutter vocal performance. Songs like “One and Lonely” are so by-the-book that it’s hard to imagine Daedelus has deviated so much from what he does best.
Although mostly eradicated, some of Daedelus’ old traits are still present throughout
Bespoke, such as his implementation of old-fashioned vocal samples and distinct cultural motifs. “Penny Loafers” pays homage to trip-hop and bumps along suavely with throbbing bass and a barbershop quartet chorus. Another notable song, "Slowercase D" is washed in bass and fuzzy synthesizers with subtle strokes of vocal layering and proves that Daedelus can operate well within IDM when he sets his mind to it. These songs are refreshing to those who feel perhaps a little undersold or mislead, or just want to hear songs more akin to his older approach to music.
At the end of the day it’s difficult to fault an artist as prolific as Daedelus for making an album that just doesn’t stand up to its older brothers. He’s not cultivating his tried and true sound, but how many ideas can one person put forth before they eventually start sounding tiresome and derivative? So although the lack of cohesion makes
Bespoke notably disjointed and it ends up faltering when listened to as a whole, it shouldn’t be criticized for not being the next
Exquisite Corpse.
Bespoke is an album that should be taken for what it is: a collection of decent dance songs with some excellent tracks amid them.
