This is a general admission, standing event.
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Daedelus
Alfred Darlington isn’t a paint-by-numbers musician. From how he looks (early Victorian Dandyism), to how he makes music, or how he expresses himself and views the world, his is a very individual ‘bespoke’ outlook.
Alfred was born in Santa Monica in 1977 to an artist mother and professor father. Musical from very early on, as a child he was classically and jazz-trained in a number of instruments, but his interests were broad and varied – less a prodigy than a renaissance boy whose obsessions ranged from Greek legend to the mountains of Wales. As a 15 year old he finally persuaded his parents to take him to the Principality. Whilst in a YWCA in London he flipped the radio dial, found a pirate radio station and taped some UK rave and hardcore. “It was my first ‘Eureka!’ moment in music,” he says.
Back in the US he joined local rock bands, jazz bands and ska bands, which he enjoyed but felt limited by, too. At home he was listening to Warp, Ninja and your harder electronic stuff. He started DJing out the more leftfield side of drum & bass and making his own rudimentary productions. They were meant to fit the d&b template but they kept turning out different and from his outsider’s experiments his own style was born. He chose the name Daedelus as he had a childhood obsession with invention, and what was he doing, after all, if not tinkering and fiddling and experimenting like the “gentleman inventors” of old?
In 1999 he started DJing on Dublab.com for his ‘Entropy Sessions’ and began dropping in his own early demo productions. Carlos Nino (of Ammoncontact) had the show after him and usually pushed Alfred out the studio as quickly as possible as he was not so enamoured with Alfred’s leftfield-electronic DJ style, but when he heard a tranquil Daedelus production he took Daedelus and introduced him to the LA scene. Nino placed Daedelus tracks on two influential compilations and then Plug Research released his debut album, ‘Invention
In 2003, he was booked to play a show in San Diego by Brian Crabtree and Peter Siegerstrong and the pair asked him to test out an early prototype of the Monome. “It’s a Non-traditional electronic instrument,” Daedelus explains. “Basically it allows for massive improvisation.” Since then Daedelus has continued to use this revolutionary controller, bringing much genuine liveness to the sometimes static world of performed electronic/dance music.
In 2003 he did ‘The Weather’ album with Busdriver and Radioinactive and the remix album ‘Rethinking the Weather’ on Mush records. 2004 saw the release of ‘Of Snowdonia’ on Plug Research, the album with which Daedelus says he first “felt true artistic confidence, finding a true voice. I was finally in the right zone.”
There was certainly no let up in his creativity. Also in 2004 he released the concept album ‘A Gent Agent’ on micro-label Laboratory Instinct. The 2005 album ‘Exquisite Corpse’ on Mush featured the likes of TTC, Mike Ladd and MF DOOM. Ninja signed Daedelus for UK/Europe (a relationship which reached its full expression on 2008’s ‘Love To Make Music To
In 2006 ‘Denies the Day’s Demise’ came out, a record showcasing his love of Brazilian music. Last year he released his first live album, ‘Live At Low End Theory’, and ‘Fairweather Friends EP’. Later that year came the release of his collaboration with his wife, Laura Darling, as the pastoral ‘The Long Lost’.
Since his last album ‘Love To Make Music To’ for Ninja there has been no let up in Daedelus’ productivity. He has remixed or been remixed by and produced with all of his LA scene peers including Flying Lotus, Nosaj Thing, The Gaslamp Killer, Baths, and countless others from further afield. In addition, singles and EPs under his own name have come out with Brainfeeder, All City, Magical Properties (the Daedelus home-imprint), Alpha Pup, Warp and Stones Throw. And all the while his reputation has grown internationally, his place in the LA scene has also solidified as a musician that many of the hottest names in the city turn to for everything from bass clarinet licks to advice on obscure electronics; all the while with a continuous string of tour dates across North America, Asia, Europe, the UK, and beyond.
2011 starts not only with his new album but the meticulous planning of a huge tour featuring guest vocalists from his ‘Bespoke
Salva
A versatile solo producer, crowd riling DJ, owner of the revered Frite Nite label and key figure in the Friends of Friends collective, Paul Salva knows how to control a room. After dropping one of 2012’s biggest tracks, a collaborative remix of Kanye West’s “Mercy” that not only reached #1 on Soundcloud, but received spins on Power 106 FM (LA), Power 105 FM (NYC), and Shade45XM, Salva’s work promotes complexity through a synthesis of contrasting styles, showcasing dips into house motifs, grooves in smooth boogie funk, and massive roiling bass waves that has garnered support from the likes of Pitchfork, FADER, FACT, BBC’s Benji B and Skream & Benga, A-Trak, Low End Theory, Snoop Dogg, Diplo, Dâm-Funk, Night Slugs, and many others.
A Chicago native who developed his craft in San Francisco and currently resides in Los Angeles, Salva has been invited to perform on the world’s biggest stages. A 2011 alum of the Red Bull Music Academy, 2012 has seen Salva perform at Sonar, Coachella, Lollapalooza, Mutek Montreal, Detroit Electronic Music Festival, SXSW, The Do Over LA, Boiler Room, Low End Theory, and many others, while touring alongside Nguzunguzu, Shlohmo, Pearson Sound, and B2Bs with Machinedrum.
Aside from his live performances, Salva hones his production talents as one of the cornerstones of the Friends of Friends label alongside Shlohmo, Mexicans With Guns and Groundislava. His 2011 debut full-length, ‘Complex Housing’ and ‘Yellobone’ EP both received critical acclaim (Pitchfork, FADER, FACT, and others), leading him to exclusive mixes for Mary Anne Hobbs, The FADER, and XLR8R, while being asked to remix the likes of Miguel Migs, Glitch Mob, Rainbow Arabia, Om Unit and others.
