DAEDELUS – RIGHTEOUS FISTS OF HARMONY

“This singular undertaking is entirely typical of Daedelus’s fertile, butterfly imagination – a mini-album conceived as an imaginary soundtrack to the Chinese Boxer Rebellion of 1899. Thankfully, LA’s Alfred Darlington approaches this self-imposed task from an oblique angle. Hoary old kung-fu movie samples are conspicuously by their absence, and it’s difficult to discern any overtly Chinese touches at all. Instead, there are eight characteristically mellifluous compositions that combine warm, melodic lyricism with simple but subtle arrangements, skipping blithely across stylistic boundaries. Daedelus neatly combines vintage textures, skittering beats and plaintive oboe for his scene-setting opener, and then goes on to introduce elegant flamenco picking (“Tidal Waves Uprising”), airy bossa nova (“Order Of The Golden Dawn”) and even reedy stylophones (“Succumbing”). Some of the tracks are little more than sketches, but there’s enough imagination on display across these 25 minutes to put many larger scale works to shame.”

– WIRE MAGAZINE

“The usual frenetic on-record personality of eternal gentleman Daedelus couldn’t be more removed from his humble, gracious self, but this time his sounds are more reflective of their maker. Righteous Fists Of Harmony, the L.A.-based producer Alfred Darlington’s first EP for Flying Lotus’s Brainfeeder label, is all about dignified dream sequences and romantic strings colliding with hypnotic electronic rhythms, all the while pointing to the core of Daedelus’s calm and surprisingly zen being.”

– CMJ

“The upcoming album from Daedelus is a study in juxtapositions: 19th-century China rubs up against the tele-technological future, organic sonic textures play with electronics, and hope is mixed with an uncertainty about a sinister future. Righteous Fists of Harmony is a sonic tribute to the thousands of Chinese martial artists who died during the Boxer Rebellion, as well as a musing about our society’s reliance on contemporary technologies. Coming out on Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder label, the record continues Daedelus’ claim as one of the more intellectually engaged heads in contemporary electronic music.”

– XLR8R

“The ridiculously talented Daedelus offers his latest exploits for Flying Lotus’s Brainfeeder label. In fine style, Daedelus constructs an unpredictable and winding narrative starting with the mini-epic ‘An Armada Approaches’, swelling from craftily harmonised beginnings to become a scene of surging strings and pitching hiphop rhythms. ‘Tidal Waves Uprising’ follows with impossibly strummed guitar strings before arriving at the yachting synth vistas of ‘The Open Hand Avows. ‘Order Of The Golden Dawn’ offers a lush 4-minutes of tropicalia more in tune with his Long Lost project, carried through with the breathy vocals and Latin handclaps of ‘Succumbing To’ and the echoic chamber pop of ‘Stampede Me’. This is a lush trip that we’d recommend to any fans of his many, many projects. Brilliant.”

– BOOMKAT

“Daedelus, known for his fascination with the Victorian era and its costumes, picks up this theme for his album to create a surreal soundtrack to these historic events. He imagines the events from the idealistic perspective of the Boxers, creating dreamlike soundscapes filled with soft acoustic guitars and melancholic strings. While mostly instrumental, some of the tracks feature seductive vocals, like the samba-esque “Order Of The Golden Dawn” with Darlington’s wife Laura. Or “Succumbing To”, a track that might as well be taken from one of Björk’s earlier albums. As with most concept albums, the result is very consistent and that’s what makes Righteous Fists the best work from Daedelus I’ve come across. Running for only 26 minutes, it leaves you with the wish for more – like a pleasant nap on a summer day.”

– NUTRIOT.COM