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Issue date: 10/29/08 Section: Out & About
DEERHUNTER
MicrocastleAthens-born front man Bradford Cox takes Atlanta five-piece Deerhunter in a new yet vaguely familiar direction with the band's newest release "Microcastle."
Combining shoegaze impressionism with doowop, Deerhunter juxtaposes last year's frequently amorphous "Cryptograms" with a newfound interest in rockabilly.
Beneath "Cryptogram"'s repetitious ambience was a liquidity that referenced the post-rock compositions of 'O' Rang.
These textures still echo in Deerhunter's sound, yet "Microcastle" contains a much more accessible immediacy.
"Microcastle," the album and concept, is the pithy deconstructed macro-structure of the Deerhunter song by the same name.
The song is a study in Deerhunter musical mechanics as it meanders in lethargic indifference before building into a propulsive, psych-garage catharsis.
In effect, it contains both sides of Deerhunter.
Keeping in theme, short album opener "Cover Me (Slowly)" introduces in microcosm Deerhunter's palette of sounds for the rest of the album.
It is also a Xanax-bared, "Cryptogram"-ed preview of the next song, the straightforward "Agoraphobia."
Album highlight "Nothing Ever Happened" climaxes into a lengthy instrumental coda with the line "I never saw it coming, waiting for something for nothing."
The lines are both a commentary on the human condition and a meta-referential comment on the climax and drone that Deerhunter both imposes and ignores.
It is a succinct statement, a combo of clichés that still strike the listener poignantly.
It is also a statement on Deerhunter, who while mining the oft-cited touchstones of The Kinks, Pavement and My Bloody Valentine, are able to shape the pastiche into newfound beauty.
Often the listener falls into the ebb-and-flow of the album, completely disoriented in the hypnotic drones of Deerhunter's collage.
Like its antecedent "Cryptograms," "Microcastle" has an excellent full-length EP corollary, "Weird Era Cont." Check out both.
VERDICT: Microcastle synthesizes Deerhunter's dual sensibilities while arguably forging one of the most interesting post-"Loveless" shoegazer albums.
Like last year's "Cryptograms" or this year's other Bradford Cox album "Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can Think But Not Feel," "Microcastle" is a contender for album of the year.
- Christopher Benton
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