Daedelus, Nosaj Thing and Jogger in Los Angeles

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  • When it rains in LA, people stay home. This young and flashy city of ADD-riddled extroverts cuddles up on the couch with a bowl of soup and the remote control. A wet night can destroy a promoter's finest intentions, for the citizens of this fair city have a finite definition of good weather—and it doesn't include anything falling from the sky. But whatever hardiness Angelenos lack for in constitution, we more than make up for with open minds. Friday was an evening of fresh perspectives, and sloshing into the venue soaking wet, I was happy to see it almost full at an early hour. The last few minutes of Jogger's future-folk beats set washed over the wide, flat venue like a rich blanket of sound whose warmth was the opposite of the weather outside. The Echoplex has a dark, basement vibe; its low ceilings and black walls offer little to distract from performances. The crowd was thick with both LA's top beat producers and plenty of people who had never heard this type of music before in their lives. Daedelus was hanging out at the merch table with Flying Lotus and the most-excellent Magical Properties tour poster, complete with fantasy map of the upcoming voyage around America with scripted warnings like "There be dragons here." I think that was the Heartland. Nosaj Thing took the stage to perform the most exciting set I have ever seen from him, riddled with big slaps of hip-hop bangers and crowd-pleasing mixes of his own warped beats. I hear Nosaj every time he plays in Los Angeles, and each time his show is different, clean and fresh and adjusted for the ethos of the evening. With a set packed with West Coast love and a bit more flash in his performance than I have seen before, his crowd was on Cloud 9 (it's next to Cloud 420). LA loves this kid. I commandeered a low table to stand on for Nosaj's set, but for Daedelus I was called to the dance floor. These days no artist wants to define his or her music by a particular genre. But Daedelus doesn't defy genres—he accepts them, and uses them all. All 8000+ of them, whipped into a frenzied blend of electronic fever and delivered with the zest of a true performer, dumped on your head like a sonic smoothie. Fast and then slow, dubstep and then techno, freak out fuzz and then overwhelming love, dance madness and then a closed-eye sway; Daedelus manages to pull it all together in his head and deliver it with stimulating precision. The magical properties of music are many, but perhaps the most enchanting is its ability to evolve your brain so that you see the world in a new way. THAT is the definition of great art, and the passionate performances of Daedelus, Nosaj Thing and Jogger on Friday night delivered nothing less.
RA