Shlohmo, Tokimonsta and Daedelus at the Glass House Saturday Night



Shlohmo, Tokimonsta, and Daedelus

April 23, 2011

Glass House, Pomona

The Glass House was already filled with red smoke when the doors opened for the closing night of Daedelus' Magical Properties 3 tour. The last tour featured Low End Theory mainstays Gaslamp Killer, Teebs, Samiyam, Strangeloop and Free the Robots, and this time, Daedelus featured like-minded rising stars Tokimonsta and Shlohmo.  
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“This is Pomona, right?” Shlohmo asked the crowd after taking the stage. “I live in LA, and I never leave my house.” After driving up from Highland Park, we were similarly disoriented, especially when we realized the Glass House doesn't have a bar. Didn't really matter, though, since 90 percent of the audience that night was underage, and the rest of us made the wise decision to grab drinks beforehand. 

Shlohmo played material off his upcoming record, Bad Vibes, which'll be out in July on Friends of Friends. The new stuff's gentler and sleepier than his early sounds, but it's an exciting new direction for the young producer. Footage of a city late at night sped by behind him, projected onto a wrinkled sheet, blending into hazy pastels such as the cover of his Places EP coming to life and growing and blooming in real time.     



Tokimonsta joined Shlohmo onstage for the tail end of his set, and then, without skipping a beat, started in on her own. After weeks of touring and two killer Coachella sets, she had the confidence of a seasoned performer, smiling as she pushed her hair out of her eyes just long enough to see how excited her audience looked. 



Signed to Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder imprint, she'll be releasing her Creature Dreams EP on May 24–a must-buy record for fans of her masterful blends of electronica, dubstep and hip-hop.



Daedelus' live show is nothing short of magical, thanks to the addition of Archimedes, invented specifically for this tour. Imagined by Daedelus and created with the expertise of Emmanuel Biard and David Leonard, Archimedes is essentially a wall of moving mirrors. It twists lights and flips images projected from planks affixed to its base, amplifying the already-ecstatic light show for a unique visual experience.  

Dipdive best captured Archimedes at the tour's Brooklyn stop:


After seeing Daedelus–and Archimedes–a week earlier at Coachella, I knew what I was in for, but seeing him perform in a venue where he could be completely in control of his sounds and lights and images was spectacular. Wearing one of his many vintage tailcoats, Daedelus
reworked his own material, mixed recognizable vocals–including James Blake!–and
about a million other less-obvious samples into one tight aural texture, an unrelenting hourlong experiment in light and sound.

After his set, he thanked the crowd for supporting the Magical Properties with the utmost sincerity, and we remembered why we drove 40-plus miles to see him on a Saturday night. Not only is Daedelus one of the nicest guys in the universe, but he's also so clearly appreciative of his fans who've called him back, album after album, tour after tour, for an entire decade. Hopefully, a Magical Properties 4 tour will follow. 

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