Microcastle

Deerhunter | Format: MP3 Download

Product Details

• Original Release Date: October 31, 2008
• Label: kranky
• Copyright: (c) 2008 kranky
• Total Length: 40:53
• Genres: Alternative Rock/Indie & Lo-Fi
• ASIN: B001DYWNAC
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #32,028 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT ALBUM!!! BEST RELEASE OF THE YEAR!!!, November 3, 2008

By 

Rafael Cova "Kid X" (Caracas, Venezuela) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Microcastle (Audio CD)

Since 2001, Deerhunter - co-founded by Bradford Cox and Moses Archuleta - have produced three LPs and four EPs worth of astonishing "ambient punk" (their own description), picking up devotees and different musicians along the way. Their mantra - "To achieve harmony in bad taste is the height of elegance" (Jean Genet) (Fronted by openly gay and occasionally cross-dressing singer Bradford Cox, Deerhunter have earned themselves a formidable reputation for intense live performances in their native Atlanta).
4AD's first involvement with the band was to release Microcastle, their excellent third album. The follow-up to 2006's acclaimed Cryptograms, it was recorded over the course of a week at Rare Book Studios in Brooklyn, New York with Nicolas Verhes and was created as a four-piece, consisting of Bradford Cox, Lockett Pundt, Joshua Fauver and Moses Archuleta. Most tracks feature Cox on lead vocals except "Agoraphobia" and "Neither of Us, Uncertainly" where guitarist Pundt is the main provider and "Saved by Old Times", which includes a vocal collage by Cole Alexander of "The Black Lips".
The sounds on Microcastle form a lush landscape. Ethereal voices blend into battered guitars and a determined rhythm section.
Microcastle has more fully formed songs and vocals, although Cox's narcotic mumble is generally half buried under layers of reverb, feedback and other guitar noise as well as tape loops and electronica. Just don't look for information about who's doing what in the minimal sleeve notes, and forget about analyzing the lyrics, since Cox seems firmly of the words-as-musical-tools school of song writing. Praise Be!
The relatively gentle Agoraphobia (one of two tracks featuring guitarist Lockett Pundt on vocals) could almost be an early Meat Puppets out-take, while "Never Stops" makes scarifying feedback a thing of beauty like "The Jesus And Mary Chain", with the first of several prettily melodic 'ahhhhh' choruses. The title track goes through a long, languid intro before morphing into a pounding rocker, and there are several spacey, reflective interludes before the metronomic "Stereolab-ish" groove of "Nothing Ever Happened". "Twighlight at Carbon Lake" is a twisted, atmospheric closer.
As the title suggests, things get stranger on Weird Era Continued. Highlights include Operation, with its intriguing tempo changes and cryptically disturbing half-heard lyrics, Vox Celeste, which recalls the muffled lo-fi luminosity of The Clean, and the epic, trancey Calvary Scars 11/Aux.Out. Opening and closing with a kind of mushroom-dazed pastoralism, it's a hypnotically pulsing Krautrock treat dipped in sonic glitter.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Drone, density, sensitivity, fragility, November 28, 2008

By 

John L Murphy "Fionnchú" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Microcastle (Audio CD)

I liked "Cryptograms" PIL-type assaults better than its bliss-out comedown tracks. This new CD may, therefore, please listeners who favor the softer side, akin more to Bradford Cox's solo project Atlas Sound. Since I love shoegazing, "Microcastles" satisfied me especially in its later tracks on disc one. These built up to thunderous feedback, and like tracks 3 and 5 on the first disc, showed a fuller band sound that appealed more to me than the many songs that, stripped-down and simpler, seemed more like home demos recorded by Cox himself.

The strongest tunes, as on the previous CD, remain those with a full-on wave of mutilation. They can begin softly, tentatively, before cresting, nearly without you realizing it, into giant splashes of sonic boom. This characteristic of Deerhunter's delivery, to me, shows the talent that they're capable of as a forceful unit, instead of anyone expecting only a Cox-led group of back-up players using the older band's name.

My son heard Jesus & Mary Chain here and there; I heard Grandaddy! The range of influences distorted and sensitive, beyond a less overdriven My Bloody Valentine, does account for the intelligence of the songwriter and his bandmates. The experimental confidence on "Cryptograms" isn't as extended as I'd expected on "Microcastle." It's there, but it ebbs and flows. The record's tracking may account for lulls, especially midway, but these must be intentional to offset the amplified tracks; this same distribution of tone and pace for structure can be heard on "Cryptograms."

There's not many bands an older fan (me) and a younger (my son) can share, and this breadth of vision that Deerhunter's been entering holds promise for their career as a band, rather than a more famous musician and his crew. This cohesiveness, heard best in the elaborate, fully instrumental songs, indicates their potential at its best. I look forward to more songs with this louder, faster, thicker attitude. If Atlas Sound can provide Cox an outlet for his delicacy, Deerhunter to me should provoke him towards more aggressive, denser, and more paranoid (but in a good way!) layers of drone and doom.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ambitious and satisfying, January 2, 2009

By 

Paul Allaer (Cincinnati) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Microcastle (Audio CD)

Let me state a couple of things upfront: (1) I am still catching up on some of the good/great albums from 2008 that I haven't really had a chance to really listen to in depth until recently; and (2) I would not have known about this album but for the good folks at internet-only WOXY (BAM!! The Future of Rock and Roll!), which is the best indie-music station in the country, bar none.

Deerhunter's third album, "Microcastle/Weird Era Continued" (2 CDs; 25 tacks; 83 min.) is obviously a very ambitious studio double-album. On CD1 "Microcastle" (12 tracks; 41 min.), lead singer and songwriter Bradford Cox has become more accessible than ever before. Check out "Never Stops", which could be a radio single, and the outright rocking "Nothing Ever Happened". Not that Deerhunter has lost its "off the beaten track" touch, check out the title track, "Active" and "Calvart Scars", among others. The adventures continue on CD2 "Weird Era Continued" (13 tracks; 42 min.), as "Backspace Century" crashes in. CD2 is more "off the cuff" and at times reminds me of Beck (see "Ghost Outfit", for example). Songs like "Vox Humana" remind me of the Besnard Lakes.

In all, this is a terrific album, even though at 80+ min. it is quite a lot to take in. I have not had the opportunity yet to see these guys in concert, but hopefully 2009 will give me the opportunity to finally do so. Looking forward to that! Meanwhile, this ambitious album is highly recommended!