4. DeerhunterMicrocastle / Weird Era Cont
Halcyon Digest is the best Deerhunter record but this is my favourite. I bought this record when it came out and so Deerhunter suddenly felt like my group. They were there, it was current and it was happening right here.
This is a band that was completely blindsiding you with what they were going to do next. They’re experts at the build up and release of tunes, which happens time and again on this record. They’re really good at knowing, in an almost dance music way, when is the right moment to do the drop. Also, just knowing that they were a four piece guitar group and what they did with that was amazing because I was making my own music at this point. They seem to understand texture like no other guitar group of their time. As a band they never reach a peak until it’s time to get there. So many other bands come on stage and you’ve seen 100% of their capacity within the first three songs and there’s nowhere to go and there’s an hour left and you’re fucking bored. Deerhunter understand the trajectory.
Also, how lucky we are to be blessed with someone like Bradford Cox? What an individual. I read his Baker’s Dozen the other day because it ‘s one of my favourites and he just seems to have this really in-depth understanding of music and the romanticism of the paraphernalia of it, which oozes out in these songs. There are so many different strands and so many things going on in this record. I struggle to describe it – it defies rational explanation to me. I’m endlessly fascinated by them. We went to see them at End Of The Road a couple of years ago, and I’d seen them before, but for some reason this was like a religious experience. I was absolutely in tears for that show. I’ve never seen anything like it.
