Dan Deacon: Bromst (2009)

New Wax


In Guy de Maupassant's short story "Minuet," the 19th-century French writer describes an old couple dancing in a nursery garden: "They advanced with childlike grimaces, smiling, swinging each other, bowing, skipping about like two automaton dolls moved by some old mechanical contrivance, somewhat damaged, but made by a clever workman according to the fashion of the time." Dan Deacon's new album Bromst evokes a similarly odd juxtaposition of imagery and emotions. While it's still brimming with the same childlike creativity of the Baltimore electro-maestro's Spiderman Of The Rings, Bromst is denser, moodier, larger in scope, and it benefits from an infusion of real instrumentation. While the album still has its moments of whimsical fun (Take, for example, "Woof Woof" with its familiar pitch-shifted cat-rap), Bromst also offers the unexpectedly haunting female vocals of "Wet Wings" and the horn-laden meditation of "Slow With Horns/Run For Your Life." Yes, there are chipmunk vocals and Woody Woodpecker samples in Deacon's music. Yes, he flails about behind his makeshift electronic lab in neon glasses and undersized t-shirts. It's easy to see Deacon as a wacky caricature, but he is, after all, conservatory-trained. Listen closely and you might just hear the complex work of true musical genius. Bromst is Deacon's most realized, ambitious work to date. -- Capt. Obvious