I met Huw Stephens the other day and although he’d just done a gig in Leeds, we were both still buzzing about the Bestival festival the week beforehand.

At Bestival, Huw was hosting The JD Rock ‘N’ Roll tent on Saturday with local heros The Bees headlining. Other acts on the day were one of John Peel’s festival favourites, Kanda Bongo Man. “God, they were good”, he enthused and they definitely were. I caught a bit of Metronomy on the way to see John Martyn which brought us back to chat about John Peel (see John Peel Day 2006 feature [coming soon]).

Inevitably, we got onto the subject of Daedelus who Huw had seen for the first time at South By South West. He told me, “After that, I just went and bought his whole back catalogue”. Imagine his surprise when he spotted Of Snowdonia album. It’s definitely interesting to compare Invention with his latest works like Equisite Corps and Denies The Days Demise to see the progression.

Bestival’s Saturday theme was the largest fancy dress party in the world which was one of the big features on the Channel 4’s documentary shown last Sunday. Huw’s concession on that side of things was to wear one of those miniature party hats, admitting that fancy dress isn’t his thing. While on the subject of Rob da Bank, we had a laugh at his expense recalling the problems he had pronouncing ‘Y Diwygiad’ when doing a trailer for the session Huw organised for them and Daedelus. This was on Daedelus’ last visit back in June (see Daedelus — Back In The UK).

Considering they’d never met each other before, the four freestyle tracks they did worked out really well (there’s a different version of ‘Y Glaniad’ on their myspace site at the moment, also worth checking is ‘Panet Rock). Hopefully, we might get a second session in the future (you never know).

In addition to his ‘Welsh’ show with Bethan, Huw was just about to start his new Radio 1 show that’s going to feature unsigned bands. This week was the first one with Brighton’s The Bobby McGees in session. As he’s on before Gilles Peterson now, it’s well worth tuning in early. He said, “I’ll still be playing Daedelus when I can. Do you know he’s coming over to the UK at the end of the month?” Time to check the diary and make sure I’m on the case for the London gig. The plan was to play Clerkenwell House on 29th followed by the unlikely trio of Nottingham, Sheffield and Guildford.

Now the bad news. Daedelus had some problems getting into the country. While expressing total frustration that the UK’s government “has deemed my musical career successful enough to keep me from playing low-key shows,” he has promised a return. Check the myspace site for further details of the European gigs that may be still on.

But then, more good news. At the moment, the myspace site is playing all six tracks off his forthcoming EP, ‘Throw A Fit’. Talk about appropriate! Even one of the tracks is called ‘It’s Madness’ with the line “It’s like entire madness”. ‘Remix of Nothing’ is a sutable piece of mixtape nonsense with ‘they think it’s all over’ footie commentary style intro.

We’ve not heard of Subtitle (aka Giovanni Marks) since Something Bells and he features on the somewhat strangely titled ‘Unadventurer’ before the romantic synthy drum break mash of ‘Humdrum Headspin’. ‘A Complicated Geometry’ is the last track and harks back to Equisite Corps.

However, the one that you’re going to be gliding around the ballroom to is ‘Admit Defeat’. Of ‘Just Briefly’ standard it’s time to take it easy on yourself (AIR will find this one interesting).

This EP shows off Daedelus at his all mixed up d’n’b, hip hop, classical, popular music and jazz best. Let’s hope the French are more accommodating of the Mr. Darcy of beats and at least, some part of Europe will get to see him live. In the meantime, ‘Throw A Fit’!

Tour dates:
Cancelled Oct-3 SHEFFIELD, UK @ Tuesday Club
Cancelled Oct-4 GUILDFORD, UK @ The Boiler Room
Oct-5 LYON, FRANCE @ La Marquise
Oct-6 PARIS, FRANCE @ Chapelle Saint-Sauveur
Oct-7 BORDEAUX, FRANCE @ Son’art
Oct-11 KATOWICE, POLAND @ Elektro Club
Oct-12 ATHENS, GREECE @ Bios
Oct-13 VIENNA, AUSTRIA @ Fluc

Hectic Mix nomination: All brilliant — more news to follow (hopefully).

Reviewed: Daedelus — Throw A Fit (Alpha Pup) Cat. No. APR 013 Release date: 26th September (as a digital format through iTunes) — CD version 10th October .
Produced and arranged by Daedelus. Mixed by Daddy Kev and Daedelus at the Echo Chamber. Artwork by Kozyndan.
Tracklisting:
1. Admit Defeat (3:50)
2. It’s Madness (2:34)
3. Remix of Nothing (4:14)
4. Unadventurer (Featuring Subtitle) (3:11)
5. Humdrum Headspin (4:52)
6. A Complicated Geometry (3:37)

Links:
www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/bethanandhuw/index.shtml
www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/huwstephens
www.ninjatune.net
www.daedelusdarling.com
www.myspace.com/daedelusdarling
www.kozyndan.com [original artwork]
http://www.alphapuprecords.com
skippingbeats.com
www.myspace.com/ydiwygiad
www.nwhiphop.co.uk
www.giovannimarks.com