Review: Daedelus EP 'Righteous Fists of Harmony'
Ever the skillful craftsman, young Alfred Darlington takes listeners on a stroll through sun-lit meadows with copious notes of acoustic guitar, flute, and tambourine. The live instruments and skittering beats showcase a polar opposite side to the Ninja Tune artist who just just recently gave us electronic mind-shredder “Hrs:Mins:Secs” off the superb 2008 LP Love to Make Music To.
Released as an EP on Flying Lotus label Brainfeeder March 23, ... Fists of Harmony’s eight tracks start with Space Invader beats and synthetic organ, but they ends in soft, romantic strings. Daedelus says the album is a meditation on the Boxer Rebellion – the Chinese’s violent and magical rebuke to English colonialism. About 100,000 Boxers died, their enchanted kung fu fists no match for British weaponry. The cursed Empire soon fell anyway.
Lead track “An Armada Approaches” opens ominously with Clockwork Orange synth, yet ends in heaps of strings. “Tidal Waves Uprising” is a sketch with acoustic Spanish guitar that’s anarchic and, well, lovely. “The Finishing of a Thing” contains the wild jazz horn crescendo of the EP, but its heart lies in the soft female vocals on “Succumbing To” and “Order Of The Golden Dawn”.
Absolutely great Spring stuff.
