Music Review: Dan Deacon's "Bromst"
Brian Weeks
Back at home in Baltimore, we have our own populist leader and he is not a politician like Zuma. His name is Dan Deacon, and he is the shining star of the rightly celebrated arts and music scene that has made many an indie kid in skinny jeans proud over the last few years. Deacon is all about the community. Last year he collected about twenty of Baltimore’s finest bands and other performers and travelled from coast to coast for a circus-like event – the Round Robin. It was hailed as brilliant by critics and fans alike and cemented Deacon’s place at the forefront of the Baltimore music scene. Deacon, whose live shows are known for their sweaty intensity, released Spiderman of the Rings about two years ago. It reflected the chaotic, indeed anarchic, nature of his live sets. You WILL move your feet at a Dan Deacon show, unless you are dead. Even then, he has been known to dangle skeletons with strobe lights from the stage, creating an eerie backdrop for the magic going on across the floor.
Bromst, on the other hand, finds a more sober, aging Deacon. One of the tracks is even called ‘Get Older.’ The shift in style and substance came as a surprise to me. I have not willfully become oblivious to the scene in Baltimore, but I have to admit that I did not even know that this album had been released until some two weeks after it dropped stateside. After reading an excellent interview with Deacon (available at http://www.arthurmag.com/2009/04/05/dan-deacon-on-his-new-tent-his-new-album-and-his-new-live-show/), I gleamed that this record would be different in that Deacon had added a band. Further, the band had nearly 15 members! I was excited to hear what changes Deacon made to his tried and tested template. I cautiously welcomed the progression that this represented, especially after having seen him four times in concert and being absolutely blown away each time. Bromst didn’t let me down.
The first surprise comes early, as opener “Build Voice” combines a repetitive sample that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on Spiderman yet had some of the cleanest lyrics ever heard from Dan Deacon. You can hear Deacon actually singing, and damned if it doesn’t sound good. This comes from a man known for his vocal manipulations and chipmunk-style distortion, which he has not given up on altogether as the rest of the album demonstrates. “Build Voice” sounds like it could be from Brian Eno’s seminal Here Come the Warm Jets, with Deacon’s simple yet distant-sounding vocals seemingly disconnected from the track around it. The chaos is controlled in the opening two minutes, and one sees Deacon’s maturation as a producer and vocalist encapsulated in this superb opener. Then, at around the three-minute mark, the colorful xylophone which swirls in the background and the horns which emphasizes Deacon’s meditations on meeting his ghost get absolutely blown away by a pounding drum rhythm, and the song really takes off. You can almost hear a hint of Arcade Fire with the propulsive rhythmic drumming, horns and Deacon’s hauntingly disturbed vocals.
The second track, “Red F”, is a bubbling and chirping livewire in the traditional Dan Deacon mould. The pace is very, very fast and Deacon’s lyrics are again low in the mix. It practically begs you to bob your head and move your feet. The track eventually explodes into one of Deacon’s patented chorus freak outs before returning to the familiar theme. The percussion, this time sounding mostly programmed rather than live like in “Build Voice”, again is at the forefront of the song’s nervous energy.
“Paddling Ghost” has been a live favorite of Deacon’s for more than two years now, and it sounds even better cleaned up on the album. The song opens with a xylophone motif before synthesizers bubble up from the surface. Eventually the first chipmunk-style lyrics are heard from Deacon as the music in the background grows to a crescendo before abruptly breaking off again and returning to the opening instrumental verse. I can remember seeing this song live and really digging the intensity of the finish. This is definitely one of the more traditional Dan Deacon songs.
“Snookered”, on the other hand, is indicative of the new Dan Deacon. The opening couple minutes are slow and beautiful, and the song is evocative of a certain wide-screen cinematic flair that hasn’t yet been witnessed in Deacon’s work. This is the most emotive of Deacon’s songs and he sounds tired when the vocals enter some two minutes in, lamenting that he has “been wrong so many times before, but never quite like this.” The song eventually picks up the pace a bit with the electronic synthesizer and percussion eventually overcoming the instruments that had formed the more organic opening. It is a tribute to Deacon that in a song that is nearly eight minutes long, he can alternate and vary the pace of the track, the lyrical instrumentation and the tone of the background instruments. What emerge towards the end are the sorrowful initial instrumentals backed by a manipulated vocal sample that frames Deacon’s lyrics. One more explosion and the opening instrumentation is overpowered again by the weight of the synthesizer.
The almost operatic scope of Deacon’s new backing band is on full display in “Of the Mountains”, which boasts more epic drum fills, bells, groaning synth and a weird vocal from the master of weird vocal stylings. It eventually breaks down into a chirping and bubbling mess of fun around minute three. The drums take over around minute five and then we return to the opening rhythm. This song is emblematic of the way that Bromst’s tracks are twisted and manipulated, but often returned to and improved upon once or twice in the course of the song. This is really much more of a pop album than Spiderman ever was. With Bromst, Deacon has put the ‘pop’ back in populist.
“Surprise Stefani” is another slow mover which begins with a drugged-out chant sequence that is punctured by the bright light of feedback, the sonic equivalent of an early-morning sun rousing one slowly. This track is one of the weaker on Bromst, as the song never really gathers enough momentum, and Deacon’s vocal samples seem unanchored in any proper rhythm. Towards the end of the song, however, the track explodes with the type of shimmering finale one would expect on a Sufjan Steven album. “Wet Wings” is another of the slower and weaker songs. It basically consists of a single vocal track replayed at varying intervals to eventually create a swirlingly chaotic and haunting melody.
The highlight of the album is definitely “Woof Woof”, which starts out with a funky, elastic bass line and a sampled vocal which sounds almost like a whooping siren. Then the drums and organ enter, all adding to the emphasis of the bumping bass line. The voices come in, all distorted and carnival-like, before the bass comes thundering back. Then the voices hurl chaotically through the air. The organ is featured prominently and the pace of this song really sets the heart and mind rushing. Again, the song is filled with enough variety of vocals and instruments to analyze for hours on end. It eventually builds to a crescendo in a way similar to Spiderman’s anthemic “Wham City”, before going silent for a spell. The return of the bass line will stick in your head for days, followed by the screeching finish; all under five minutes. Amazing stuff.
“Slow With Horns/Run for Your Life” starts with a horn intro, slow as the title implies, bounded by a wall of distortion. The pace eventually picks up before descending again to the simple motif which the song began with. A good way to picture a number of the songs on this album is like a geographic landscape with various valleys and peaks, crescendos and quiet moments of reflection. Or, to picture a series of waves. Either way, what Deacon is doing in this album is not dissimilar to the way Sigur Ros builds up, almost operatically, to a thrilling moment of climax.
“Baltihorse” is another lovely swirling Chipmunk dancer. The pace is once again jacked up and the percussion leads the way here, especially after the lyrics fade out. Around the fourth minute, a beautiful twinkling organ starts to lead the charge forward, and one can really hear Deacon’s training as a composer in the manic finish. The album closes with “Get Older”, whose energy and dirtiness clearly contrast with the title of the song. If this is what Dan Deacon getting older sounds like, then we are still in for some cartoon madness and hectic beats before his time is through. The evolution shown on this album is enough to keep us guessing as to the next direction Baltimore’s populist prince will lead us.