Dan Deacon is pretty great, heads up. Before I get too caught up on talking about how great he is, let me tell you about this amazing opportunity. Tonight. 7pm. Concert. What. Up. Meet me there and we will jam out with our yams out.
Anyway. Remember this?
That’s Dan Deacon. Dan Deacon also makes music.
True Thrush.
Crystal Cat.
Paddling Ghost.
Dan Deacon (born August 28, 1981) is an American composer and electronic musician based out of Baltimore, Maryland. Since 2003, Deacon has released eight albums under several different labels. Deacon is renowned for his live shows, where large-scale audience participation and interaction is often a major element of the performance.
This week I’ve been listening to some strange music. According to the world’s most trusted source of answers about anything, Wikipedia, experimental music is something that “pushes the boundaries of the genre, or incorporates unorthodox, new, distinctly unique ingredients.” Whatever it is that I’ve been listening to lately, it certainly is unique. This experimental mood of mine has brought me down two very different musical paths: experimental jazz, and experimental electro.
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One of my favorite jazz bands “Medeski Martin & Wood” (who is actually coming to the House of Blues tomorrow 11/18) is a great example of experimental jazz fusion. The organ/drum/bass trio love to jam and try new things. Most of the time it works out, but sometimes not so much… Last time they came to Boston, they improvised a few songs that sounded like a woman going through labor and a hippopotamus having a bad acid trip accompanied by a blindfolded gorilla drumming with his eyes closed. But hey, that’s what sound experimentation is for!
Here is a good example of an strange, but enjoyable MMW song: Beeah
And if you don’t like that, give them another chance! This is more Jazz, less experimenting: Last Chance to Dance (Perhaps)
On the other end of things is Mr. Oizo, a French music producer/director/DJ. I’ve fallen in love with the album “Lambs Anger”, which is more mainstream than his earlier albums. I’ll let the music speak for itself here.
Listen to Half a Scissor off his second album “Moustache”:
Weird stuff right? Yah, I know, but I can’t get it out of my head. I love it! The entire album is like this: glitchy, fuzzy sounds over a strange beat. (This is kind of what I would imagine a waterfall would sound like if Tron were real life.)
His later album “Lambs Anger” has more of a dance beat to it, and isn’t so terrifically odd. Still, some of his songs are just so random.
Like, for example Bruce Willis is Dead:
But my favorite song my Mr. Oizo, and definitely my favorite song of the week, is Positif. The only lyrics are some lady or robot (not really sure which) saying crazy things in French like “Stop Reproducing Yourselves” and “You are animals!” It sounds so much better when she says it, trust me.
Well, that’s all I got for this week… Au revoir!
- Tim
