ALBUM: Deerhunter - Microcastle

Okay, so this reviews a little late, but I'm a little late onto this one. I recently (i.e. a couple of months back) listen to Cryptograms and was stunned. It was brilliant.

Then, yesterday I read a review in my student paper about their latest effort Microcastle, clearly written by a new fan of theirs, literally gushing so much with praise it seemed hard to believe that the pages weren't sticking together.

So I decided to listen to the album myself and give it a quick review. So here it is.

Microcastle both starts where Cryptograms left off and completely destroying any memory of it. The opening duo "Cover Me (Slowly)" and "Agoraphobia" help kick start and set the scene of the album in the way every opening track should - by yanking the listener by the scruff of the neck and saying "this fucking album starts right here, listen to all of it right now or piss off".

"Little Kids" insteads takes the old lo-fi touches, with hint of Pavement and Guided By Voices, and constantly builds texture and layer before wandering off into nowhere, possibly never to be seen again. However everything here seems at once so monstrously delicate and intentional that it would take a lesser person to attribute any of this to laziness.

I can't help but be reminded of having to pore over poetry at school and focus on how the "poet's cunning use of a repeated vowel sound to convey their emotions" when it was clearly just dumb luck on their part. However, with this album I can start to see the point. Using somewhat cheesy guitar lines and effects on tracks like "Microcastle" juxtaposed with Bradford Cox's gentle and unconventional vocals is nothing short of genius.

If anything, the one genre which shines through here is clearly shoegaze. Microcastle is basically Loveless with the guitars turned down a bit. Cox's voice is an instrument itself, becoming part of the background and drawing you even further in.

In the words of the review I read, it really is an album to turn up loud an enshroud yourself in.

8.5/10

Microcastles is out now on 4AD records in the UK.

School Of Seven Bells

Ex-Secret Machine Benjamin Curtis' new band, on the face of it, couldn't appear any more different. His previous band's material garned "prog" labels and an obvious classic-rock influence. All the people in said band were also male.

That's about where the differences end, as his latest group, School Of Seven Bells, match the tight dynamic and skill, as well as the droning, driving percussion, and feature the twin talents (yes, twins) of Alejandra and Claudia Deheza of On!Air!Library.

Together, the Brooklyn trio have created a sound somewhere between Frou Frou's stuttering and filtered techno with CSS without all their annoying retro throwbacks and obsessions with alcohol. Sort of.

Currently touring the US with M83, go to their Myspace and check out "Half Asleep".

And then buy their album, Alpinism. Or maybe wait until I've reviewed it, first.

http://www.myspace.com/schoolofsevenbells

Air Castles

No, they're not to be confused with those pesky Canadians who, with one of the duo topping the cool list, will be unironically dropped like a stone by those who cared about them in the first place, but is the solo work of a certain Max Mansson of Londoners Burn Down Rome.

His debut EP "Night & Day" is about to drop on the 24th in the UK before being unleashed onto the rest of the world soon after, and if its as good as what is given as an appetiser on his MySpace, he takes the softer and more epic part of the indie-rock spectrum, and is easily likened to such luminaries as Death Cab For Cutie and Band Of Horses, among others.

Definitely one to watch.

http://www.myspace.com/aircastlesmusic