Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest

On their fourth album, Deerhunter seem like finally reaching what could be considered their sonic adulthood, with a collection of extremely well-crafted indie songs and a more mature and quiet sound. So what do they now that they have grown up? Well, basically what all good adults should do: look back to those good old days and make a record filled with sweet and warm nostalgia.
Gone are the cathartic feedback and reverb explosions, now all that matters are the songs themselves - and damm-perfect songs they are, evoking past sentiments with a surprising sense of positivism, something not quite common with these guys before. And in the meantime, the more extreme experimentation of previous records is now replaced by a new-found sense of classicism and formality. Who knew that Deerhunter would give new meanings to the idea of languid adulthood and be so good at it? (7,5/10)

Deerhunter - Helicopter (video)



www.myspace.com/deerhunter
deerhuntertheband.blogspot.com

Polaroids # 30

Deerhunter live @ Lux




(Pictures taken on the 1st of June 2009 at Lux in Lisbon, Portugal)

Best Of 2008: Top 30 albums

There was no specific musical tendency that defined 2008, so it ended up being a very eclectic year and I think this also reflects in the list for my favourite albums of 2008. A lot of interesting stuff happened though. So here we go...
Each album has a link for its original review in this blog.

30. Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)



(review)


29. The Ruby Suns - Sea Lion



(review)


28. Ricardo Villalobos - Vasco



(review)


27. Britney Spears - Circus



(review)


26. Wild Beasts - Limbo, Panto



(review)


25. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend



(review)


24. Paavoharju - Laulu Laakson Kukista



(review)


23. El Guincho - Alegranza



(review)


22. Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires



(review)


21. The Very Best - Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit are The Very Best



(review)


20. Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing



(review)


19. The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of The Understatement



(review)


18. Mystery Jets - Twenty One



(review)


17. Neon Neon - Stainless Style



(review)


16. These New Puritans - Beat Pyramid



(review)


15. Lykke Li - Youth Novels



(review)


14. Atlas Sound - Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel



(review)


13. Late Of The Pier - Fantasy Black Channel



(review)


12. Metronomy - Nights Out



(review)


11. Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III



(review)


10. TV On The Radio - Dear Science



(review)


9. The Bug - London Zoo



(review)


8. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular



(review)


7. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles



(review)


6. The Dodos - Visiter



(review)


5. The Honeydrips - Here Comes The Future



(review)


4. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours



(review)


3. Deerhunter - Microcastle / Weird Era Continued



With releases this year as Atlas Sound (his solo project) and with Deerhunter, Bradford Cox cemented his status as a sort of new indie hero. A complex personality, slightly disturbed and paranoid, and also creator of music that reaches extreme levels of both intimacy and intensity. Exorcising one's private demons in public doesn't come much better than this.

(review)


2. Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster... + We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed



Swallowing a complete catalogue of the last 15 years of indie music and then regurgitating it into their own sound, what really took Cardiff colective Los Campesinos! apart was the intensity and energy that they put into their songs. Did "Hold On Now, Youngster" feel like a once-in-a-lifetime experience? Well, but then came "We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed" proving us all wrong...

(review HON,Y)
(review WEB,WAD)


1. Kanye West - 808s & Heartbreak



There were not many records this year that suggested a new sound for the future and a rupture with the past. Instead, influences were proudly displayed everywhere, with excellent results in some cases. But coming from a surprising source, we did have an album that sounded unique and unlike mostly anything ever heard before. As a consequence of a tumultuous personal year, Kanye West stopped caring about what we think and along released a record that mostly played with his new favourite toys: Auto-Tune and a TR-808 drum machine. And adding a sense of melancholy and loneliness that was new to him, the most amazing collection of stripped-down digital pop songs of the year was born.

(review)

Deerhunter - Microcastle

I have to confess that I was really curious about this second full-length album from Deerhunter, as no one could know what to expect. Their first record "Cryptograms" was a visceral reverb-loaded cathartic experience full of angst and despair, but then they followed it up with an EP ("Fluorescent Grey") that took a more pop-oriented lighter approach and to top it all, an year later, vocalist Bradford Cox put out a record that was a completely different experience. In "Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel", from Bradford's side project Atlas Sound, it seemed as if he had come to terms with his own demons and the result was a collection of beautiful home-made abstract drone sketches. So what next? A return to the loud sonic assaults of their debut? Or keeping up with the recent evolution and exploring a bit more the inner-joys of the Atlas Sound project? The answer comes in the form of "Microcastle" and follows a surprising direction: it takes a bit of everything that was behind and adds up some 1960's influences seen through a schizophrenic lens. So we end up with a very diverse but also strongly-cohesive collection that if, at first hand, seems a bit understated, that's just because we now can actually see the amazingly-written songs in all their glory, something that in the past was hidden underneath all the hypnotic fucked-up noise. And fucking great songs these are, with their delicate mixture of psychedelic leanings, pedal-guitar algoritms, compelling melodies, dynamic flourishes, glorious refrains and bedroom experimentation. All put together to form a confident exorcism made of indie gems that is destined to become one of the best records of the year. (9/10)

Deerhunter - Agoraphobia (fan video)



MySpace page
Blog

Atlas Sound - Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel

We love it when our favourite musicians are slightly disturbed, don't we? Rock'n'roll history is full of good examples, but lately no one has personified this obsession with problematic figures more than Bradford Cox. With Cryptograms, last year's album by his main band Deerhunter, he managed to deliver one of the most visceral records in recent years. In the meantime, his physical appearance (he's diagnosed with Marfan syndrome), his ambiguous sexuality or his dubious blog posts have managed to strongly divide opinions. But judging by the first record from his solo side-project Atlas Sound, it seems he's now a bit more pacified. The sound is lighter and occasionally approaching a strange sense of beauty, with songs full of hypnotic elements, involving drones, whispered voices and strange details, that seem like sketches waiting to be filled by whoever listens to them. This is mainly due to the fact that we're listening to real bedroom sessions, during which he was exploring his fascinating inner world just by himself and with no one else around. But actually what came out of it is still haunting enough to renew my respect for the guy: we're only lucky that he let us hear this very personal and intimate self-exorcism. (8,5/10)

Atlas Sound - River Card (unofficial video)



MySpace page

Music Videos # 37 and # 38

Menomena - Wet And Rusting




Deerhunter - Strange Lights



Two videos for two of my favourite albums of early 2007. Menomena show us that they have a great sense of humor in this feel-good video for the beautiful "Wet And Rusting", taken from Friend And Foe, with special guest appearance by Mr. Death himself. Wait, a feel-good video starring Death? Hard to believe? Just watch it. Deerhunter, on the other hand, make a literal translation of their song's title and, suiting their own music, the video for Strange Lights (taken from Cryptograms) results in an immense hypnotic experience. Ahhh, the joys of combined audio and visual delight!

Deerhunter - Cryptograms

A concept record that actually lives beyond its ideas and theories. Divided in two parts, the first one is the nightmare side, or the representation of evil: intense songs constructed around distorted guitars, creepy atmospheres and scary thoughts. The second part is its antagonic twin brother, or the good dream: more melodic and open, with spacious ambiences, like the sunshine after an evil plot. Uniting everything is a very strong hypnotic feeling that is present in every song, with the continuous use of various sound loops, and a sense of risk and experimentation from start to end. The references are visible, like Kevin Shields and My Bloody Valentine or the more experimental side of Sonic Youth, but even considering those external influences, this record still sounds very self-absorbed. But not in a bad way, on the contrary, making it a rewarding experience to enter its own unique and fascinating universe. Slightly pretentious? Could be, but a small touch of genius makes a big difference, creating something at the same time so radical and so compelling. So yeah, I prefer to call it successfully ambitious. Mission more than accomplished. (9/10)