Dan Deacon

CD OF THE WEEK:America, Domino *****

Dan Deacon listened to David Bowie’s Low while writing America, which has the air of an anthropological project, one that explores positive aspects of a country that has broken his heart, and asserts that happiness is more powerful than sadness, though “it’s harder to hold on to”.

On this record, Deacon portrays all that is decaying, using clattering beats, and percussion that almost bursts the seams of his exploration. All of it is informed by his relationship to his home, Baltimore, previous seat of American industry and present seat of distress. Yet Deacon sees things through nature’s clarifying eye, bringing us an album that is full of desert and sea, of philosophy and physicality.

The album is split in two, the furious-sounding Side-A and the epic Side-B (which houses USA I-IV, an introspective, four-

part composition, and among the best, most complex things he has ever done). There is distorted joy on Guildford Avenue Bridge, with its drums and tinkling keyboards. Amid this paradoxical sound, he reaches a shambling but true connection – a legacy of his passion for, and involvement in, the DIY movement.

The heady joy in that is obvious in the fizzing True Thrush and in the raw Lots – “city” songs that in their passionate, anxious percussion, ask of this increasingly fragmented world “where is all this leading?”. We arrive at the healing waters of the ambient Prettyboy, named for the reservoir an hour’s drive from Baltimore and a musical bridge to Side-B – but not before we Crash Jam in the New Mexico desert, in a track inspired by an experience on a haywire tour.

USA I-IV is the “great American journey”: as well as geographically moving from one part of the country to the next, it moves sonically, picking up aspects of 2009’s Bromst, folding in acoustic sounds, with the chamber ensemble peeping out from behind the electronic curtain; offering parping trumpets on Rail and wind instruments and strings that create a majestic energy.

Movement is a key word for Deacon: DIY political movements, the movement and freedom of mind and body. America is emotional and stirring, topical, yet timeless. An anagram of Lots is “lost”, but trust Dan Deacon to find the right meaning: his America is lots and lots.

Download tracks: Lots, Prettyboy, USA I-IV