After almost three decades of friendship, Zurich-based musicians Benedikt Merz and David Hänni moved into a studio together in 2019. They found common ground over their shared love of psychedelic music and spent long, woozy nights jamming together. But while one wanted to focus on live electronics, the other secretly wanted to start a band. The outcome was Dâdalus & Bikarus, a project which sits somewhere between these two worlds, welding elements of krautrock, punk and big beat into tripped-out dancefloor rhythms.
Their second album, Off the Shelf, captures the obsessive energy of those early nocturnal experiments, which they’ve since built a reputation for in their live shows. Anchored by drawn-out loops, each track slowly builds tension to dizzying, near-erotic heights. On Erebros, this takes place across a hefty 11 minutes: led by propulsive drums and a scuttling bass riff, the track pushes and pulls, eventually developing into an angular acid-punk workout. In Kill Your Feed, another standout, a simple drum sequence gradually kicks into a shuffling Madchester-esque groove, with plenty of feedback along the way. For all their repetition, the instrumentals are moreish and never dull, thanks also to the ominous sirens and metallic clangs scattered throughout. Merz’s vocals are similarly enticing, channelling Peter Murphy’s moody drawl at points, and gruff EBM-style yelps at others.
