DAN DEACON
Bromst
CAK48
Carpark Records 2009
10 Tracks. 64mins20secs

Buy: CD | LP | MP3 | iTunes

Dan Deacon is not your archetypical classically trained musician, with past outputs ranging from the playful, quirky or bizarre to the manic or plain silly. Hailing from Baltimore, Maryland, home of Animal Collective, Deacon first got noticed over two years ago with his debut album, Spiderman Of The Rings, published on Carpark Records, largely made up of hyperactive laptop-based songs sounding half way between 8-bit electro inferno and cartoon-esque insanity. Prior to the release of this album, Deacon had already got the hype machine running overtime in his neighbourhood thanks to is involvement with art collective Wham City and incendiary live sets. Since, he’s had music featured on a handful of split singles and collaborated on a DVD release with Jimmy Joe Roche.

With Bromst, his sophomore release, Deacon shows some clear signs of maturing as he incorporate more live instrumentation and brings down the pace of his compositions a tad, resulting in a much more balanced collection. Continue Reading »

ADVENTURE
Adventure
CAK45
Carpark 2008
11 Tracks. 37mins19secs

Carpark Records artists are kind of like games for a Nintendo Wii.  There’s more than enough cuteness to go around, some hipsters stuck in kidulthood, and lots of far-out nonlethal weaponry (read: lo-fi and chip tune synths).  There’s even a Mario figure, in the form of mascot / oddity / unsettling manchild Dan Deacon.  If this metaphor is to be carried even further (and guess what – it is!) then someone needs to be Link, the little questing elfin hero from the Zelda series.  So, why the hell not, how about Benny Boeldt?

Right off the bat, Boeldt fits into the mode of the dungeon scourer – he’s chosen the moniker “Adventure” for his musical forays. Continue Reading »