Alfred Darlington isn?t your average cookie-cutter musician. From how he looks (early Victorian Dandism), to how he makes music, to how he expresses himself and views the world, his is a very individual, a ?bespoke? outlook.Alfred was born in Santa Monica in 1977 to an artist mother and psychologist 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 YMCA 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 and bass and making his own rudimentary productions. They were meant to be drum & bass 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?
Working from a studio in Santa Monica, California. A young Daedelus began noodling bass clarinet notes, and soon graduated into the covenant of double-bass. After an ill-fated affair pondering classical and jazz, rave paved the way, and a burgeoning record collection fueled Daedelus? artistic creativity, preparing the path to his first full length release, Invention. Inspired by '30s, '40s and '70s grooves, and defying genres such as downtempo and hip-hop, Daedelus gradually begins to venture into the L.A. afterdark.
The music on Invention combines multiple instruments, including non-traditional ones such as computer printers, toy pianos, and among other bent and mis-used, the Omnichord. Daedelus invites local MC talents Busdriver and Sach to flow over the masterful bonus versions of "Quiet Now" and "Pursed Lips Reply." Invention unfolds in dynamic ranges of emotion.
Daedelus has also released "Her's Is >" on Phthalo, an e.p. "The Household" on Scott Herren?s Eastern Developments imprint and has produced "The Weather" album for Mush Recordings. Then "Rethinking The Weather", "Meanwhile...", "A Gent Agent", "Of Snowdonia", "Axe Murderation", "Exquisite Corpse", "Denies The Day's Demise", "Fair Weather Friends", "Love To Make Music To" and it's SPs for Ninjatune recordings, and most recently "Friends of Friends vol. 1" T-shirt EP along side Jogger.
Daedelus is now found pouring lighter fluid on the turntables at dublab.com, fretting endlessly over his live set, and generally thinking in threes and fours.
He has worked with Laura Darling, Busdriver, Frosty, MF DOOM, Prefuse73, Absract Rude, Madlib, Flying Lotus, Pigeon John, Hrishikesh Hirway,Radioinactive, High Priest (anti-pop consortium), N'fa (1200 Techniques), Taz Arnold and Om'mas Keith(Sa-Ra), Michael Johnson, Cyne, TTC, Carlos Nino(Build An Ark, Amoncontact)+ many more. His live show, which utilizes Monome, has amazed audiences across the US, Europe, Australia, China, Middle East and Japan.
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From Wikipedia:Alfred Darlington (born Alfred Weisberg-Roberts) is an experimental music producer based out of Los Angeles, California. Daedelus pioneered using the Monome in conjunction with Max/MSP for live performances. He is a part of the groups Adventure Time and The Long Lost. He is currently signed to the Ninja Tune label but has released material with a number of labels, including: Plug Research, Mush, Laboratory Instinct, Eastern Developments, Phthalo, Merck, Big Dada, Soul Jazz, Distill, Hefty, Bit Of Heaven, Temporary Whatever, Stones Throw, Alpha Pup, Eat Concrete, Friends Of Friends, Brainfeeder and Warp. He is also a founding DJ at the internet radio station Dublab. He attended the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music.