Secret Meeting score: 83
by Philip Moss
Since The Beatles invaded America in the 1960s, bar the grunge movement in the nineties, Britain has pretty much dominated guitar based and alternative music. That being until the start of the noughties when America very much fought back – taking on predominantly British influences. Despite claiming that nostalgia is dead, Deerhunter’s enigmatic frontman, Bradford Cox, is equal parts Syd Barratt, David Bowie, Morrissey and Jarvis Cocker. A blend that makes him one of the most interesting and divisive characters in contemporary music, along with the fact that over the last thirteen years his group have gloriously shapeshifted through bedroom psychedelia, lo-fi punk/garage rock, new-wave and unabashed pop. So the question is: where do we find Deerhunter in 2019?
Opener, Death in Midsummer, is as commercially strong and immediate as anything in the Deerhunter canon – its sprawling, chaotic arrangement, underpinned by a twisting harpsichord loop, and sprinkled with pop melodies that somehow make the macabre lyrics – ‘let the devil be cast out on his tail’ – seem somewhat less menacing. Greenpoint Gothic is an instrumental track that’s drenched in synths straight off Bowie’s Low, and would perfectly soundtrack that rare sunny day in a dystopian movie. While the closest moment to their last full release, 2015’s overtly pop Fading Frontier, is Element – its foot tappable rhythm and harmonised, jaunty chorus leaves an instant lasting impression.
But at the midway point, Détournement (the French word for ‘rerouting or hijacking’), marks a literal turn. Gone are the forthright, straight laced compositions that fill the album’s A-side. Instead, experimentation marks the distinctly different and almost chorus-less B-side, which opens with Futurism – its riff recalling The Strokes’ 12:51 and the great ‘is it a guitar or is it a keyboard?’ debate.
Welsh songstress, Cate Le Bon, has been drafted in as co-producer, and her fingerprints are all over the record – particularly in the LP’s outrageous use of inventive percussion, which has been a vital ingredient across much of Le Bon’s career. But its on the haunting Tarnung – the sole offering from guitarist, Lockett Pundt, where her unmistakable voice brings colour to the most experimentally fulfilling track on the record – that again recalls the best of Bowie and Eno’s collaborative work in Berlin, as murky low end synths are juxtaposed by jazzy saxophone flourishes.
Without doubt, Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? is Deerhunter’s most eclectic record of their career – and is yet further proof that, at this point, American groups will not be losing their grip on the alternative music scene any time soon.
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