The California beat-maker Daedelus has just released his ‘Drown Out’ LP, a 12-track journey through the weirdly beautiful depths of experimental electronica and has been described as “heart-on-sleeve meditation devoted to loss, coded language, and the maddening failures of communication.” The record was produced in the aftermath of his grandmother and close friend Austin Peralta‘s passing, so understandably it’s a pretty sad album.

“Everyone deals with death and departure in their own way. For me, it started to stew and manifest itself in sound. Almost ridiculous to try to express because of how jagged it feels, it’s easier to face through music,” he says. “There was a longing to express myself louder then the grief. This is the album that I needed to make. Music can be this ultimate form of poetry—a place to express huge ideas and a whole range of emotion in a few minutes,” he says. “But it can fall short because no one can quite share in the experience as much as you feel yourself. Someone can empathize, but your melancholy ultimately rests in you. Title the songs, name the album, but the music is what speaks in the end.”

Amazingly, it’s the LA veteran’s 12th album in as many years and is out on Anticon, and throughout the record you’ll cop West Coast gangsta rap, rave, classical, jazz, footwork, juke, and the heavy beats that crop up out of the Low End Theory. You’ll hear the sounds of skateboards clattering, the chirps of crickets, even drying eyes. There is secreted fragments of morse code and other musique concrète kicking up dusty grooves.

Take a listen to the lead single ‘Paradiddle’ below and the rest of the record below via the Juno player. My favourite is tune #3 ‘Tiptoes’. Recommended for those rainy days ♥