Altsounds - Daedelus & Jogger – Friends Of Friends [EP]

It is undeniable that experimental electronic music is currently on the rise at an exponential rate. Perhaps the scale is best measured by simply taking a look at the charts, paying attention to music used for media, scene kids’ shirts in the coolest bars in town, the sheer amount or new music of this genre being put out or live listings. This is all possibly because dance music has evolved – gone are the days of Ibiza-dance and 10,000 tracks all fronted by the same female vocalist singing about how much she loves her ‘baby’; now is a time when dance music is beginning to be accepted in other forms, which is naturally a fantastic means to nurture the genre and to allow it to grow and to explore the limits. One of the unsung heroes (to an extent) of this generation of producers is ‘Daedelus’. Sure, poster-boys Justice, Soulwax, SMD and Daft Punk all have contributed their fair share to the revolution of electronic music, but as with many musical trends, the real heroes often go unappreciated until it’s too late (At The Drive In & Glassjaw spring to mind with the explosion of emo).

‘Friends Of Friends’ is essentially a record label that is pioneering a series of releases celebrating the unique sense of community that arguably provides the backbone for this face lifted genre. The idea is that an artist is asked to produce some music for the label, but that artist then in turn gets the opportunity to commission a producer of their choice to share the release with. Additionally, the two then have control over the split-release’s artwork (in this particular case, Kozyndan) and limited edition shirt, which nicely rounds off a fantastically customized project.

Following that structure then, USA based über-producer Daedelus was approached by Friends Of Friends to provide material for the first release of this series. He then selected the relatively unknown ‘Jogger’ to share this groundbreaking release with. Daedelus takes the floor first...

‘C’est Super’ is a simple, easy listening track with a hint of the timbre made famous by Mr Oizo in recent years and is a great introduction to the perfectionist style, ear for good music and attention to detail of Daedelus’ music. Light and summery like a gazpacho soup. ‘LA Nocturn’ adopts a far more minimalist approach which leaves space for the producer’s creativity to come through – something that Daedelus truly shines at, whereas his final track ‘Off To The Races’ kicks off sounding not dissimilar to the work of Soulwax’s alter-egos ‘2manydjs’ before ascending into a whirlwind of Casio-sounding accordions, latin-funk percussion and an overall feel-good atmosphere. A hard act to follow, but Jogger attempt it nonetheless...

Opener ‘Nice Tights’ wastes no time in introducing an embarrassingly generic dance beat which is perhaps too heavy on the Cubase high-hats, but this is somewhat redeemed by the unique sounding layers that are draped over the top of this simple percussive backbone, climaxing in an unusual rhythmic breakdown that rather cunningly doesn’t lead to anywhere at all. Considerably thumpier and more prominent than ’Nice Tights’ is ‘Litre o’Cola’ – a much darker track with puncturing beats and a sinister melody. Jogger somehow seems more at home with this track and really stands out as a great producer with bags of potential. The wonky-sounding ‘Nephicide’ is a beautifully individual piece of music, though this isn’t obvious upon the first listen. Jogger samples death metal vocals and even nods towards the genre with a touch of rapid double-kick bass drums towards the end of the track, though be sure to understand and appreciate the contrast with these aspects of the track and the hazy, chilled out layers of bass and synth. This is possibly as far as electronic music can be from the stereotyped Ibiza sound.

In all, a fantastically unique release showcasing the very best in modern electronic production and a project well worth supporting which has only the best intentions of nurturing this fairly recent revolution of a genre. The transformation of electronically produced music is perhaps the most relevant and important change in popular music that we have seen for a decade – it is not simply a ‘trend’ or yet another sub-genre, but a complete overall of the main genre that will inevitably result in more people expressing interest and taking it to higher highs and stretching the music to its limits.

That can only be a good thing in a Cowell controlled world.