Dan Deacon : Snookered

Yet another artist I don't know a lot about. Dan Deacon is an electronic composer whose works fall somewhere between rock, IDM and electro-acoustic music. I first heard of Dan on a podcast where he actually did a lot of this stuff live, which is just crazy. And it's not just Dan sitting there clicking buttons on his laptop. Lately he's been touring with an actual fourteen person band. So, serious props for that.

This tune is relatively straightforward compared to the rest of his stuff, if you can believe that. It builds from a quiet, reflective sonic pool into a maelstrom of sound. It takes a bit to get going, but once the rhythm kicks in, it drives on straight-ahead, fast and furious. Dan (I assume) sings some very Eno-esque vocals over the top, and garnishes the whole thing with frantic riffs on some sort of malleted instrument and a variety of electronic gewgaws. Plus there's a killer sampled-vocal breakdown in the middle. He rocks on it hard for a few minutes, then suddenly it quits out from underneath you, like the cliff under Wile E. Coyote, and you're back at that reflecting pool at dusk wondering what the hell just ran you over. What's especially neat is, if you listen to the song on repeat, it's tough to tell where the loop actually comes around. It just sounds like one endless eternal song.

This eight-minute rocker can be found on Dan's most recent release, Bromst.

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