| Does music eat, sleep, or breathe? Is rock dead? Does hip-hop have cancer? Absurd as it seems, someone somewhere is stroking his or her chin over such ruminations, falling into that awful trap of following today's beats like a soap-opera. It's odd then, that I find myself coining a concept album, with hip-hop's demise as its concept, as one of 2005's early masterpieces. That's right, ever-productive abstract beat man Daedelus has completed his opus, Exquiste Corpse, and it's being billed as an "elegy to hip-hop," the title referring, among other things, to the supposedly limp, pasty, though nonetheless beautiful, remains of the once-grand genre. Well, I can't say I see the same corpse, and, ironically enough, I would cite Exquiste Corpse as evidence to the contrary; all the breadth and brilliance of this record would indicate the thing we like to call rap is just beginning to clear its throat. Some genuinely unique structures and textures appear throughout, making Exquiste Corpse stand tall among any recent electronic productions, and not just those you can bob your head to. Compartmentalization is immediately defied with the opener "Dearly Departed" a delicate bounce accentuated by some beautiful strings and vocals aching with nostalgia for 1945 - or perhaps for our departed genre? Daedelus' manner of juxtaposing the black and white vibe with the ill beats, most fully realized on his 2002 master work Invention, is in full effect here, creating simultaneous heartache and foot tapping. Building on the greatness of Invention, rather than simply meandering with mixed results as on 2004's thrown together Of Snowdonia and A Gent Agent Daedelus weaves a coherent work of bittersweet string compositions like the instrumentals "Fallen Love" and "Just Briefly" and crackly poetic or vocal ballads like "Now & Sleep" with Laura Darling. The latter completely forgets reality and moves far beyond genre definition. The baby grand and dusty strings lift Darling's crooning higher and higher until the beat brings it all gently back down. It's those vocals, among other lyrical contributions, raps, and free verses that really characterize the corpse. The abundance of guests, with nine of the fourteen tracks being collaborations, fulfills the second of the title's three meanings: a reference to an old French parlor game, cadavre exquis, in which a piece of paper is exchanged among a group until each member of the party has contributed a word, resulting in often strange, abstract, yet complete, sentences. This group word collage, or recorded mental diarrhea, however you want to look at it, has been labeled mental contagion. So does Daedelus' collage live up to the legacy? Aside from it being his best work next to Invention, Exquiste Corpse is certainly loveable for its healthy balance of absurdity and poetic beauty. Like a bunch of 19th century Parisians riding the absinthe wave with pen and paper, Daedelus can produce with beat and voice results ranging from head-bumping skitiddy skat on "Welcome Home" with the great beat master Prefuse 73, to the sharper, more brooding poeticism of "Drops" with lyricist Cyne. "Drops" along with a few other instances of lyrical brilliance such as Mike Ladd's take on the "Welcome Home" theme, MF Doom's "Impending Doom" ramblings, and the aforementioned melodic orgasm that is Laura Darling's contribution, comprise the substance - you could even say soul - of Exquiste Corpse. The notion of mental contagion is indeed of service here, with each guest's interpretation of the central theme amassing into a complete idea of simultaneous variety in texture and seamlessness in content. Whether Daedelus is actually sarcastic in singing the sorrow for hip-hop, if he is in reality only remarking on the exquisite nature of his massive body of work, or the corpse should be taken at face value, is all irrelevant. Whatever the listener's interpretation, Exquiste Corpse is undeniably convincing. The most impressive quality of Daedelus has always been his willingness to explore, and this record, aside from any particular allegorical meaning, perfectly exemplifies the most frequently successful results of such an inclination. That being said, it is arguable that, within the entirety of Daedelus' experimentation, there is mediocrity next to the incandescent. Exquiste Corpse is thankfully comprised mostly of the latter, only rarely slipping. At his best, Daedelus usually comes up with something like "Thanatopsis" the record's grand finale and concluding elegy. The title meaning a meditation on death, "Thanatopsis" sees Daedelus go as far as he possibly can from the genre in question, employing the nasally vocals and crisp guitar percussion of Hrishikesh Hirway. Even as Hirway manages to fully illuminate the candid nostalgia Exquiste Corpse keeps hinting at, Daedelus chooses to propel the song to its climax with aggressive beatboxing, a juxtaposition that brings full circle whatever concept the listener had in mind. The only thing as convincing as the resolution this song brings musically is the last of Hirway's verses: "Make no beauty of me / Place no coins upon my lids / Let my legacy / If there's one to see / Be in what I did / My lonely body shall not be / Some hollow sign / Of what I leave behind." - Bard Observer |
1XLP/Out Of Print