Today’s Sounds: Deerhoof

Record:

Deerhoof, Breakup Song (Polyvinyl)

 
It’s not quite pop music, but it’s Deerhoof‘s derelict and demented interpretation of it.

Breakup Song is the 12th album by the eccentric and highly experimental band, and it marks an abrupt about-face from their last effort.

Deerhoof Vs. Evil (2011) was all about indulging the ever-present band mantra of complete and jarring change. But with sullen, squawking mambo and glossy hooks, Breakup Song approaches the idea in swarming, skittering electro beats and groovy Latin pop. Swirling, jarring jabs of digital bit-crushing with freaky bossa-nova shuffles — it’s somehow all enveloped and coagulated in a supple soup of pop sensibility and heartbreak.

The morbid, broken-bass-bin lo-fi of “Zero Seconds Pause” sees soaring, glistening synths and crumbling, creaking low-end paired with bewitching siren vocals from lead singer Satomi Matsuzaki. “I think we’re going dancing / If you would care to join me,” she sings, eerily cheery.

The spastic and jagged track “Flower” from their 2003 album Apple O’ reappears here as a mescaline-laced, organ-driven groove-jam. Silky and sexy, it shows a brighter, less angular side of Deerhoof with its ironic refrain of “Let it go, leave it all behind” — with the band indulging the complete opposite by including the track on the album.

Fans of the band’s esoteric elegies and disjointed, skeletal soundscapes need not be concerned, however, as tracks like “Bad Kids to the Front” are churning, whining whirlwinds of strange whistles and squeaking, glitchy gauze, drifting aimlessly between a four-on-the-floor club beat and mercurial murk.

The fact that Breakup Song is so acutely bizarre and insatiably poppy is a true testament to the unpredictability and inscrutable brilliance of this band.
 

Track:

Philip Glass, “Rubric” (Tyondai Braxton remix)

Beck spearheaded Rework, a remix project to mark the 75th birthday of Philip Glass, (arguably) the king of contemporary classical music. Hear the first track from the record, out Oct. 23, by the former singer/guitarist for Battles.
 

 

Video:

P.O.S., “Fuck Your Stuff”

From Minneapolis, from the mighty branches of Doomtree, rapper P.O.S. keeps it underground and off the grid in this sweet vid. Coincidentally, this is exactly how the Cult MTL crew likes to party.