His Story Repeats Itself

After multiple handfuls of albums and singles across some of the great electronica labels of the 21st century, one thing’s for sure about Los Angeles beatmaker Daedelus; nothing about his music feels accidental, especially not the cultural references peppered throughout it. From his pseudonym of Greek myth to his dandy onstage couture, his work suggests anthropomorphic library shelves coming together to form like Voltron and step into the studio. For the second time in his career Daedelus has chosen to base a complete release on a pivotal world event, The Light Brigade being inspired by the Crimean War of 1853–56.

The first time Daedelus turned on his Wayback Machine, with 2010’s Righteous Fists of Harmony, he developed an imaginary soundtrack for China’s Boxer Rebellion. We here at mxdwn appreciated the teaching effort, but weren’t impressed with the actual sonic lesson. In an interview with Vice, Daedelus insisted The Light Brigade was conceived well before this year’s Crimea/Russia crisis, its songs offering abstracted viewpoints of war from participants in the 19th-century conflict. Although this trope was used better in the dystopia of Nine Inch Nails’ Year Zero, Daedelus here casts himself as musician/journalist, a nod to the first war reportage of its kind from British correspondents in Crimea. The vocals (from Daedelus as well as from guests like Young Dad) are layered and overdubbed to create affecting choruses, if not the most perfect multi-part harmonies. That’s likely part of the plan, too, as they overlap both the grainy pastorals of Dead Can Dance and the emotive lilt of How to Dress Well.

His intriguing synthetic atmospheres and rolling keyboard waves appear on songs like “Tsars and Hussars.” “Pre-munitions” has a loping cymbal-filled beat, and “Until Artillery” includes an eerie reading of the Alfred, Lord Tennyson poem lending the album its name. Yet Daedelus’ big problem is spending half of The Light Brigade on same-sounding plucked guitar solos or features like “Sevastopol” and “Battery Smoke.” He even stretches into full-blown orchestration on closing cut “Country of Conquest,” worlds and centuries away from the music that normally wins him acclaim. Daedelus again has latched onto “Serious History,” and again has made music far too serious to enjoy beyond its existence as high art. Much in the same way that Aphex Twin pixellated classical composition throughout Drukqs long ago, The Light Brigade is really a dry folk album trying to pass itself off as electronica.