| Deerhunter — Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? (18th Jan. 2019) |
Deerhunter — Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? 
Location: Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Album release: 18th January 2019
Record Label: 4AD
Duration: 36:10
Tracks:
01 Death In Midsummer 4:22
02 No One’s Sleeping 4:26
03 Greenpoint Gothic 2:02
04 Element 3:00
05 What Happens To People 4:16
06 Détournement 3:26
07 Futurism 2:52
08 Tarnung 3:08
09 Plains 2:13
10 Nocturne 6:25
Review
By Cam Lindsay, Published Jan 15, 2019. Score: 9
•≡≡• Named after the late French author Jean Baudrillard’s 2007 book, Deerhunter’s eighth full~length arrives with a lot of the same existential uncertainty we’re all suffering from right now.
•≡≡• Billed as “a science fiction album about the present,” the band fittingly recorded a large portion of Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? in the desolate, forgotten town of Marfa, Texas, fresh off some improvisational recording sessions Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox did with avant~pop savant Cate Le Bon and her DRINKS partner Tim Presley. With Le Bon involved, Deerhunter found new inspiration and an opportunity to explore uncharted territory, resulting in the exotic, Japanese~tinged synths of “Détournement,” Lockett Pundt’s “Tarnung,” which leans heavily on vibraphone and sax, and some jarring vocal edits on closer “Nocturne.”
•≡≡• However, by retaining the help of regular collaborator Ben Allen, Deerhunter have also turned in some of the most accessible work they’ve done to date. “Death in Midsummer” is textbook Deerhunter, using guitar noise and a waltzing harpsichord to battle the anxiety of living in a fading world, while “Element” and “Futurism” express a blissfulness we’ve rarely heard from them. But the finest moment comes courtesy of James Dean’s ghost, which haunts the ebullient “Plains,” a song that sought energetic guidance from Whitney Houston’s “How Will I Know.”
•≡≡• In the press release for Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? it questions the relevance of an album in today’s algorithmic world; Deerhunter shouldn’t be concerned with such things. They continue to look forward and create music that feels unlike anything else out there. This one is no exception: it’s the perfect antidote for these bleak, modern times.
•≡≡• https://exclaim.ca/
Description:
•≡≡• How do you describe an album out of time, concerned with the disappearance of culture, of humanity, of nature, of logic and emotion? Why make this album in an era when attention spans have been reduced to next to nothing, and the tactile grains of making music have been further reduced to algorithms and projected playlist placement. Why wake up in the morning? Why hasn’t everything already disappeared?
•≡≡• Deerhunter’s eighth LP forgets the questions and makes up unrelated answers. It gets up, walks around, it records itself in several strategic geographic points across North America. It comes home, restructures itself and goes back to bed to avoid the bad news.
•≡≡• From the opening harpsichord and piano figures of ‘Death in Midsummer’, it is impossible to tell where the record came from. Is ‘No One’s Sleeping’ an outtake of an aborted Kinks recording session in 1977 Berlin with Eno producing? No. That is nostalgia. If there is one thing Deerhunter are making clear it is that they have exhausted themselves with that toxic concept.
•≡≡• What they spend their time doing instead is reinventing their approach to microphones, the drum kit, the harpsichord, the electromechanical and synthetic sounds of keyboards. Whatever guitars are left are pure chrome, plugged straight into the mixing desk with no amplifier or vintage warmth.
•≡≡• The result is as thrilling, haunting, and unpredictable as anything in their roughly 15~year career.
•≡≡• Deerhunter have made a science fiction album about the present. Is it needed right now? Is it relevant? Perhaps only to a small audience. DADA was a reaction to the horrors of war. Punk was a reaction to the slow and vacant 70’s. Hip Hop was a liberated musical culture that challenged the notions presented wholesale about the African~American experience. What is popular music today a reaction to?
Label: https://4ad.com/
_____________________________________________________________
| Deerhunter — Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? (18th Jan. 2019) |
Album release: 18th January 2019
Record Label: 4AD
Duration: 36:10
Tracks:
01 Death In Midsummer 4:22
02 No One’s Sleeping 4:26
03 Greenpoint Gothic 2:02
04 Element 3:00
05 What Happens To People 4:16
06 Détournement 3:26
07 Futurism 2:52
08 Tarnung 3:08
09 Plains 2:13
10 Nocturne 6:25
Review
By Cam Lindsay, Published Jan 15, 2019. Score: 9
•≡≡• Named after the late French author Jean Baudrillard’s 2007 book, Deerhunter’s eighth full~length arrives with a lot of the same existential uncertainty we’re all suffering from right now.
•≡≡• Billed as “a science fiction album about the present,” the band fittingly recorded a large portion of Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? in the desolate, forgotten town of Marfa, Texas, fresh off some improvisational recording sessions Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox did with avant~pop savant Cate Le Bon and her DRINKS partner Tim Presley. With Le Bon involved, Deerhunter found new inspiration and an opportunity to explore uncharted territory, resulting in the exotic, Japanese~tinged synths of “Détournement,” Lockett Pundt’s “Tarnung,” which leans heavily on vibraphone and sax, and some jarring vocal edits on closer “Nocturne.”
•≡≡• However, by retaining the help of regular collaborator Ben Allen, Deerhunter have also turned in some of the most accessible work they’ve done to date. “Death in Midsummer” is textbook Deerhunter, using guitar noise and a waltzing harpsichord to battle the anxiety of living in a fading world, while “Element” and “Futurism” express a blissfulness we’ve rarely heard from them. But the finest moment comes courtesy of James Dean’s ghost, which haunts the ebullient “Plains,” a song that sought energetic guidance from Whitney Houston’s “How Will I Know.”
•≡≡• In the press release for Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? it questions the relevance of an album in today’s algorithmic world; Deerhunter shouldn’t be concerned with such things. They continue to look forward and create music that feels unlike anything else out there. This one is no exception: it’s the perfect antidote for these bleak, modern times.
•≡≡• https://exclaim.ca/
Description:
•≡≡• How do you describe an album out of time, concerned with the disappearance of culture, of humanity, of nature, of logic and emotion? Why make this album in an era when attention spans have been reduced to next to nothing, and the tactile grains of making music have been further reduced to algorithms and projected playlist placement. Why wake up in the morning? Why hasn’t everything already disappeared?
•≡≡• Deerhunter’s eighth LP forgets the questions and makes up unrelated answers. It gets up, walks around, it records itself in several strategic geographic points across North America. It comes home, restructures itself and goes back to bed to avoid the bad news.
•≡≡• From the opening harpsichord and piano figures of ‘Death in Midsummer’, it is impossible to tell where the record came from. Is ‘No One’s Sleeping’ an outtake of an aborted Kinks recording session in 1977 Berlin with Eno producing? No. That is nostalgia. If there is one thing Deerhunter are making clear it is that they have exhausted themselves with that toxic concept.
•≡≡• What they spend their time doing instead is reinventing their approach to microphones, the drum kit, the harpsichord, the electromechanical and synthetic sounds of keyboards. Whatever guitars are left are pure chrome, plugged straight into the mixing desk with no amplifier or vintage warmth.
•≡≡• The result is as thrilling, haunting, and unpredictable as anything in their roughly 15~year career.
•≡≡• Deerhunter have made a science fiction album about the present. Is it needed right now? Is it relevant? Perhaps only to a small audience. DADA was a reaction to the horrors of war. Punk was a reaction to the slow and vacant 70’s. Hip Hop was a liberated musical culture that challenged the notions presented wholesale about the African~American experience. What is popular music today a reaction to?
Label: https://4ad.com/
_____________________________________________________________