I get some of the people. Like Venetian Snares, he's moving a new genra, so that's expected.
Dan Deacon is an out there, Neo-Classical slash Techno slash Pop Slash Dance composer, but his album Spiderman of the Rings really threw the musical world for a spin back in 2007, and Got Rolling Stones and Pitchforks best new music award. Okay, so I'm gonna give you the run down on the need to knows (I feel) in the music world right now.
First is Dan Deacon, because I love this man so much.
My friends, today Bromst was leaked, and knowing full and well that I had already preorded my own copy, I went out and downloaded this follow up to the an odd little contraption called Spider Man of the Rings that classical-electronic composer brought to us in 2007. Spiderman of the rings somehow fused the techniques that early Phillip Glass has created, spun them on an acid trip, and fused them with pop, the song Trippy Green Skull contained an all to familiar
Ludacris cover. It spun the musical world for a spin, and largely split critics and music fans alike, with his Woody Wood pecker samples, his high pitched squeals, and his over baring synths and minimalist classical composition techniques. What the music world has found out was what Dan Deacon fans had known all along: This is something completely new, this is something different, something pure, something without any old baring to hold it down. Only this fat, balding man who rose from the depths of Baltimore to bring us such varied works as
Pink Batman, a gentle classical piece, full of heartwarming minimalist, gradual chord changes, and bizarre, techno punk
Snake Mistakes.
But the paradox would not stop there, Dan Deacon would see even more uprising about his odd, quirky concert style, which relied heavy on crowd participation and did away with stages, and song sets and bands. And instead pulled the crowd right in, dangerously close to his instruments and body sweat. Playing games with the crowd is not an option, it is a necessity. You'll find yourself spilling under crowds of people, simply because a fat man told you to run through them, yelling out Pizza horse! as you do so. All of this excitement, and for only 5 dollars for each concert, regardless of weather or not he brought on one of his many fellow Baltimore **** buddies like
Beach House, Animal Collective,
Jana Hunter, or
Ponytail.
Once again, in the same year, Dan Deacon would throw the world yet another curve ball, this time with a musical and video achievement called
Ultimate Reality. Long time friend of Dan Deacon, post modern video producer Jimmy Roche had crafted a work that needed music, and the only proper musician in sight was Dan Deacon. Together, they took the world that was early Arnold Schwarzenegger, and fused it with improper psychedelic video techniques. What would ensue was a mind blundering trip down some sort of twisted world where there was no past, no medieval, no mars, no future; only a twisted present that existed in a twisted visual and audible world. He then quickly followed this with The Round Robin Tour, a concert experience that lasted two nights for 5 dollars and featured over 30 bands split between the two nights. There was no headliner, as each band or singer or comedian or speech writer or acting duet or visual artist or dj went one after the other, arranged around the room in a circle, creating one
twisted concert experience.
As if the world hadn't been tortured enough, after having done about 300 + concerts that year, Dan revealed that his new albums was already in the works, and told the world it wouldn't be as wacky, to expect something darker, and more organic. No one could understand what Dan was up to, and while fans succored in unrestrained impatience and fear, Dan, along with members of Ponytail and PERCUSSIONPERCUSSION had cracked up something for the world to see, something that didn't rely so heavy on grind synths and wacked out samples. Suddenly, we received our first taste of Dan from something called Get Older, aptly titled as the album is suppose to be more mature than Spiderman of the Rings was.
Get Older held the same spirit that Spiderman of the Rings had achieved, while using true percussion and guitars to rock the show.
Now with his fans' faith reaffirmed, his tour began in Australia, and we still wait to hear word of the large visual element that he has said will accompany the album. I do not wish to spoil to many things about the album, but I can say that it does no disappoint, for fans and foes alike. He successfully builds on the odd ball of condensed brown suger spiked with citrus c and corn syrup that would please the taste buds of any 5 year old that was Spiderman of the Rings. And leave an afternoon of listening to this album, my love for this fat rebounded, and extending my arm asking you to join us on this unicorn ride into a happier land, where we all play drums and sings about big sharp shark swords, bees, beast, knee lords, sweet cakes, mace lakes, till the waves wash away the remains of the last memories of the human race.
. . . . . so that sums him up. Essentially, he has turned an entire city into a musical center, fused genras, reshaped ideas about how a musician should present himself, and just what a concert can be, all in 2 years.
Next is another group from Baltimore, Animal Collective.
AC is a group that hipsters like to call indie, though they are in no way realated to the Jonas brothers, and though they may not have massive radio play, they are a massive driving force to everyone who listens to music today, weather or not you have even heard of them. Because of Animal Collecitve producing a hugely successful album out of their basement, you had a stream of musicians aim for a lo-fi sound, aiming to replacate a sound that AC had already moved on from. By now, they were making more produced albums, featuring instruments tuned out of key not out of artist statement, but out of a necessity.
Feels was released and still didn't prove to be the breakthrough hit that many artist see on their sophomore album, but their fan base had grew and intensified. Avey Tare had mixed different styles of singing that others thought to be at the opposite ends of the musical spectrum. Using screaming for climaxes, and a lighter Who style for the melodies, he gave the songs balance without them proving to be sporadic.
Now, things get a little darker.
Strawberry Jam was released after the guitar player had left, and now, sampling was the word, and arpeggio's the side effect.
Peacebone gave the group a successful single, and
Fireworks helped support the album well. Now with finance success on their hand, and thanks to Dan Deacon, the press had come to take note of Baltimore, Animal Collective had gone from dedicated fans, to a underground movement as large as anything Punk, The Who, or Led Zepplin ever had.
Then their lattest album came out,
MPP, and it sucked ****, move on, wait for their next album.
I'm tired of typing, and that AC summery sucked, so here are brief, brief summaries.
El-P and Aesop Rock.
Hip-hop was dead at the end of the 90s. Then a rapper who had been involved with rap since the beginning started a new record label, on it, he signed unknown rapper, Aesop Rock.
Aesop Rock put out
Labor Days, the album that is creadited for single handily saving hip-hop.
Later, El-P releases many albums that are declared to be some of the finest examples of New York hip-hop ever made, including
I'll Sleep When You're Dead and
Fantastic Damage.
Busdriver kept the West Coast alive an innovative, throwing out a flow that no one could touch, and a voice the size of King Kong.
No one can touch this man freestyling. No one can touch his voice
Prefuse 73, founded modern day noisey hip-hop with his song
Point To B,
There are others. But I'm tired of typing.
Is it Lykke Li?
