What you say
No-one has reviewed Microcastle by Deerhunter yet.
What we say
 This record left our Brett feeling happy.
So the new Deerhunter album is finally here in physical form and it's a twofer - both the CD and vinyl come with an extra CD containing Weird Era Cont., the whole other album that Big Bad Bradford accidentally leaked then had a massive paddy about. Good value but with one complaint, why does the vinyl have the ace cover with the skull eye bloke relegated to the little Weird Era Cont. CD sleeve rather than all big like? Not fair! When I first heard the title I was expecting this to be a really Kompakt-influenced album (Microcastle/microhouse) since I'd read that he's a big fan of that stuff.. Instead it sees everyone's favourite long man indulging in a spot of accessibility more than ever before. Drowning out the words seemingly preoccupied with desire and longing, frequently sung in girl group tones, the production's probably what the inside of Phil Spector's head sounds like when he's in that dream haze state between wakefulness and sleep. Like the 7" released a few weeks back, for the most part this is fairly close to feel of the Fluorescent Gray EP and the Atlas Sound stuff as well as the more 'songy' end of Cryptograms ('Strange Lights' pour example). I've always thought of them as a bit of a sister band to Liars and that analogy holds up pretty well on this one, it's easy to make a comparison with the last Liars LP that initially (to me at least) seemed to be a step sideways at best until a few listens later when I begun to enjoy it on its own terms. I reckon this one's a right little grower. I'm probably just telling you all this shite you already know or disagree violently with about Microcastle since it leaked years ago then got put up as an 'iTunes exclusive', presumably because Bag Bid Bradford wanted a free MacBook or something. Weird Era Cont. has been marginally less readily available so I should write just a little bit about that one too.. I think I'm right in saying that the properly mastered version is making its debut here and it more than stands on its own away from its worrying 'bonus disc' tag. These tracks tend to be a fair bit more varied, free and experimental than those on Microcastle, with the obvious tradeoff that it makes for a less cohesive whole. The quality's consistently high though, a disc like this with most bands would be some tossed off half-finished rubbish that you'd never listen to again after the first go around but I'd have been more than happy to have paid for this one. Two grand albums for the price of one.. Go out and find your local credit crunch and stick these up his arse. Bug Baps Bradford.
What the label says:
· ‘Microcastle’ is the follow-up to 2006’s critically lauded
‘Cryptograms’ and was recorded over the course of a week
at the Rare Book Studios in Brooklyn, NY with studio
proprietor Nicolas Verhes (Les Savy Fav, Silver Jews).
· The band on the record are a four-piece consisting of
Bradford Cox, Lockett Pundt, Joshua Fauver and Moses
Archuleta (they have since been joined by an additional
guitarist Whitney Petty).
· All tracks on the record feature Bradford on lead vocals except
‘Agoraphobia’ and ‘Neither Of Us, Uncertainly’, which
are fronted by guitarist Lockett Pundt, while ‘Saved By Old
Times’ also features a vocal collage by Cole Alexander of
The Black Lips.
Cover Me (Slowly) * Agoraphobia * Never Stops *
Little Kids * Microcastle * Calvary Scars * Green Jacket *
Activa * Nothing Ever Happened * Saved By Old Times *
Neither Of Us, Uncertainly * Twilight At Carbon Lake |
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