Deerhunter - Microcastle
October 28th
You might be surprised to know that this album isn't even technically out yet, though it deserves all the attention coming its way. Bradford Cox is something of a celebrity in the modern independent music circle. On his own he's release an album, nine EPs and been featured on two compilations since 2006. He was born with Marfan Syndrome, a genetic tissue disorder of which his lanky limbs and long fingers are a symptom. He is gay and a virgin. Interested?
However, Cox didn't simply slide so elegantly out of the darkness to 'get weird and turn pro.' He played drums for the Black Lips and a number of other bands after he found his Paul in Lockett Pundt and they created Deerhunter. Deerhunter is a group from Atlanta, Georgia that could be described as garage, shoegaze or even ghost rock, as their myspace proclaims, but to put a single label on their latest work, Microcastle, would be avoiding description. In fact the entire group is more complex. Their first bassist died of head injuries while skateboarding, the album dedicated to him was titled Turn It Up Faggot. Their guitarist, Colin Mee, left the group for what he thought was undue attention primarily for their band blog (a complex phenomenon in and of itself). These and every other twisted aspect of this group would be not nearly as interesting if the music weren't stellar in its careless distortion, musicality and aversion to any singular style.
Microcastle will be out in physical form on October 28th, but was leaked to the internet in May and was on iTunes in April. Somehow there seems to be no part of this group that has gone according to plan. Even the latest albums of Deerhunter (yes the one after the not-yet-in-physical-form subject of this article) and Cox's solo project, Atlas Sound, were leaked from his personal shared folder, of which he wasn't aware and to which he accidentally posted a link on his Deerhunter/Atlas Sound/Lotus Plaza blog. Though the entire album is so cohesive and consistently impressive, three tracks stand out.
'Nothing Ever Happened' is the anthem, at times depressing but bright and haunting. Cox's vocals are perfectly strained and sound especially empty-hearted with Pundt's backing. The song, like much of the album, is more of an orchestration, made up of movements rather than a simple bridge-verse-chorus structure. 'Never Stops' is a breezy space-rocking tune that captures what is otherwise a very subtle characteristic of this album, the essence of rockabilly. The combination of something as innocent as the slight seduction of early Rock n' Roll and depression or depraved sexual encounters of a modern artist is an attractive one. The Raveonettes have turned that attraction up to eleven, but Deerhunter allows it to lie only slightly beneath the surface, something like a memory or in the case of 'Never Stops,' a dream. Finally, 'Microcastle,' the title track, is so slow and dragging that you can't help but feel aggravated. Of course, by 1:07, the songs turns to pop distortion surrounding Cox's vibrato vocals and an almost identical pulsing guitar. But again, it is not simple a song dedicated to an emotion or a single feel or even anything quite explicit. It is ghostly, but in an inexplicable way maintains an innocence. While it is often true that one should never read about an album in lieu of listening, Microcastle is currently the definition of that statement.
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