MASTERFUL PSYCH-ROCK FROM US UNDERGROUND MAVERICKS
One of the best US undergound bands of the past few years, Deerhunter might even have topped 2008’s acclaimed Microcastle/Weird Era Contd album with Halcyon Digest. Early on, ‘Revival’ is a short and sharp exercise in lo-fi indie-pop, but the tune that really lets you know that Halcyon Digest is something special is the near-seven minute opus ‘Desire Lines’. Opening with a My Bloody Valentine-style blast of etherealness, the song eventually morphs into a blistering noise-rock jam, underpinned by powerhouse drum rhythms.
‘Helicopter’, meanwhile, is another masterful slice of psychedelic noise, borrowing the best elements of The Cocteau Twins and Sonic Youth. This expansive, wall-of-sound style is an art in which Deerhunter leader Bradford Cox excels, as indicated by the masterful nu-gaze records he makes under the name Atlas Sound. Just to show Deerhunter aren’t a one-trick pony, though, they follow ‘Helicopter’ with the jerky, post-punk rhythms of the two-and-a-half minute ‘Fountain Stairs’.
To bring proceedings to a close, Deerhunter unleash the eight-minute ‘He Would Have Laughed’, an epic slice of swirling art-rock. Get read to feel slanted and enchanted.