Tuesday, October 28, 2008

DEERHUNTER – MICROCASTLE (KRANKY/4AD)


DEERHUNTER – MICROCASTLE (KRANKY/4AD)

Here is an album by a band that I have been force fed by Stevo, which is pretty strange considering he has no idea what Pitchfork is. In a way I think he is just looking for a new Pavement.

Alas his search is not likely to end here as Deerhunter really do not tug at such heart strings; they barely tug at such shirt tails. You can see where the comparison comes from in the breezy and slightly wonk despatch of lines and energy but away from that there is an element of the band that suggests they maybe horribly devoid of song.

Deerhunter remind me more of shoegaze than lo-fi, of a swarming sheet of sound within which songs too often get lost and never found. The sensation is one of a foggy temperament and chilled times.

Microcastle has a lucid demeanour. Picking up on a strange sense of occasion, the background behind these songs are worrying ones, origins that do not sound invigorating, ones not conducive to a joy filled existence/experience. Then again early on into their career Blur sounded like this once.

Purposely odd and playing on it Deerhunter sport something of a strange and unique background making them (and this record) very much a product of their environment; which ultimately may explain why too often it sounds and feels like a whimper.

The ambience and stillness of this record suggests (maybe echoes) an existence originating from a slower pace of life, one away from grind and one very much geared towards survival set against old standards and conventions. There is a reason these people struggled to fit in.

With moments such as “Little Kids” a truly suffocating climate is captured where lush vocals combine with swarming strides of distorted guitar held subtly in the mix until it gradually reaches boiling point and consumes proceedings snuffing out all that came before it. Sadly such moments of illation are few and far.

In a time when the horrors of the world are more vivid and tangible than ever before with so many outlets and resources looking to dismay and distort the world for so many here is another piece of the action, a very personal account of a method of turning one person’s pain into another’s pleasure and treasure. This will not win a Grammy.

Thesaurus moment: dawn.

Deerhunter
Kranky
4AD

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