California producer, Daedelus has never been the type of artist to care about commercial success. His older albums were orchestral tracks tethered to wobbly hip hop beats but his new albums seem to be taking a more mainstream approach. His 2008 album, Love to Make Music To, was praise for “using a bunch of guest appearances from rappers and vocalists and a beat-heavy sound” by AllMusic. His new album, Bespoke is worthy of the same description.
The album features guest appearances by Canadian electronic artist Milosh, vocalist Inara George, and neo soul singer Bilal. Perhaps the best collaboration is between Daedelus and alternative hip hop artist Busdriver on the track, “What Can You Do?” The track features 90s-style dance piano with a noisy lo-fi dance beat under it. The track has some esoteric elements but is clearly leaning towards a more accessible style.
But Daedelus does not stop with trying older forms of dance music. “Overwhelmed” which features Bilal features some serious dubstep influences.
In the end, Bespoke is a little too close to Love to Make Music To to say he’s expanded his sound but the album feels a little closer to accessible. The crawl to accessibility hits some bumps during Bespoke leaving the album feeling mediocre.
Rating: 5.8/10
