Deerhunter: Microcastle
[Kranky Records] [xrr rating=4.2/5]
Reviewed by: Christian Hagen
When some people in the modern rock scene throw around words like “ambient” or “shoegaze” when referring to a band, they’re usually discussing the music as if it’s pure background noise. A good ambient album is exactly that: Pure ambiance. You don’t need to pay attention. You just turn it on and go about your business.
Deerhunter, the indie/post-punk outfit from Athens, Georgia, understand this concept, and can execute it quite well. But, as the title track of their third full-length album proves, they don’t necessarily want to. The track begins serenely, guitarist Lockett Pundt lazily strumming as lead singer Bradford Cox’s reverb-coated voice croons like Chet Baker in the Luray Caverns. The song could take you to a Georgian summer night by a pond, lightning bugs flitting by your face as you drift to sleep. But, just as the lull of the music pulls you to the point of forgetting that a song is even playing, the rest of the band dives into the water, a grand splash of energy that cleanses the palette of all the ambiance and reminds you that yes, this is a rock band after all.
The band’s presence isn’t always so full, as on the last half of “Green Jacket”, which fades into obscurity as if your speakers were floating away into space and taking the music with them. But credit must be given to the group for not getting lost in the static like so many of their counterparts and, I daresay, their predecessors. The album’s longest cut, “Nothing Ever Happened”, strikes the bouncing punch of The Pixies with Pavement guitar licks, even as the reverberated vocals recall My Bloody Valentine soundscapes.
With Microcastle, Deerhunter reminds us that, in all the ambient noise and beauty a young band might choose to delve into, there can still be melody and, most importantly, rock.
This review was originally posted on Pajiba .
