HeiBräu

With the release of the latest Atlas Sound record, I’ve been working on the website and listening to Bradford Cox records.

Here’s two of my favorite cuts from Deerhunter’s Weird Era Cont., the excellent, under-listened companion record to Microcastle.

“Backspace Century” exemplifies the cyclical haze that characterizes so much of Bradford Cox’s music. It’s a harsh, intoxicating theme (“send my regards to those that suffer endlessly”) that calls to mind a sickening blend of alarm bells.

Deerhunter’s “Backspace Century,” from Weird Era Cont.

“Vox Humana,” by contrast, is a modernist, meandering spoken piece that rests on a gentle 50s ballad. It sounds like rejection and cigarettes outside of a gymnasium decorated for Enchantment Under The Sea, filled with highschool sweethearts in frilly dresses. Beautiful.

Deerhunter’s “Vox Humana,” from Weird Era Cont.

I’ve already been hard at work on my best-of lists, which despite varying levels of engagement in other areas of writing on my website, have come out every year for the past seven years. That blows my mind. Unfortunately, due to the redesign, there remains a lot of formatting work on years 2004 through 2007 that will absorb a lot of time after the new year.

~ by HeiBräu on 11/10/2011.

Posted in Commentary, Features