Chris Daly dials M for monkey
Not heard since 2003’s Dreams of Water Themes, it’s Adventure Time! With that in mind, c’mon, grab your friends, today we’re going to very distant lands. On Of Beyond, the L.A.-based duo of Daedelus, fancy lad producer extraordinaire, and Frosty, co-founder and creative director of dublab, have traveled past their initial, nautically themed audio journey and set their ship to outer space.
For those unfamiliar with AT, theirs is the found sound, musical collage vibe. The production style falls somewhere between the cartoon beats of DOOM, the left field leanings of Left Channel, and the crate digger obsessions of Madlib. Never once is the melody or groove sacrificed simply to prove how deep their record collections run. And there’s plenty to show off here, too, from the NASA station control conversation on opener “Countdown to Blastoff” to the Japanese beer-commercial-sounding lyrics on “Our Paws Applause,” from the B-movie dialog on “Teleportation: Mark 1” to the downright goofy French, Based-God-knows-what discussion on “We All Agree It’s Grand.”
Of Beyond never lacks for the peculiar. However, interspersed among the audio detours, Adventure Time displays their collective genius as master DJs. Utilizing everything from 60s symphonic soundtracks to foreign children’s records, AT keeps things light and fun at all times. The album closes with a handful of remixes from the likes of Suzanne Kraft, Dntel, Oorutaichi and Yosi Horikawa. While this type of bonus material often comes across as unnecessary filler, in this instance, it seems more like friends were called upon to expand on a theme.
Somebody might want to get Pendleton Ward on the phone. This is music for Ice Kings and Bubblegum Princesses alike.
