Halcyon Digest [CD]

Sometimes the first time you hear a new artist they immediately make perfect sense to you and you welcome them into your life like an old friend, other times it takes listening to a second release before you really get a grip on a band. In the case of Deerhunter my position was the latter - as much as I respected Microcastle as an intriguing album I felt distanced from it and never really connected to it as a whole. I tended to dip into it every now and again. Perhaps it was that little twinge of anticipation I felt reading the pre release hype, perhaps it was revisiting the previous album with renewed interest, priming my ears in readiness, that led to me embracing this new release wholeheartedly from the off? Well, often this is the case with a second purchase but in this instance I think the change in my response is down to a far more obvious factor - `Halcyon Digest' is a near perfect album from blissful start to abrupt finish.

Consistency is king here, so little point picking highlights in terms of quality - better to focus on an impressive newfound variety in sound and composition. `Earthquake' opens the album in a narcotic, woozy haze before the smoke clears for the retro pop pairing of `Don't Cry' and `Revival'. `Sailing' is stripped four track simplicity and, let's not beat around the bush, downright bizarre in an adorable kind of way. `Memory Boy' cruises in on a My Bloody Valentine approved riff and the whole track reeks pleasantly of early nineties indie pop. I'm sure the Arcade Fire would have had the lawyers on standby listening to the first few bars of `Desire Lines' but fear not, it morphs into a very different type of animal and once again the spacey 90's shoegaze influence is impossible to ignore - the song goes instrumental half way through and it is this second half that is most impressive.

`Basement Scene' throws another total curveball and even outdoes `Sailing' by being the most `out there' moment on the disc. Over indulgent? How could you - in terms of theme and mood this song might just be the key track on `Halcyon Digest'. `Helicopter' is another important addition to the set as it is sweet, lilting and one of the most conventional compositions included here. `Fountain Stairs' revisits the pop style of `Don't Cry' and `Revival' but adds some triumphant guitar in the mix (reminiscent of the noisy section of the title track from `Microcastle') before `Coronado' storms out of the blocks like a punch drunk Strokes falling out of a jazz club (check the sax!).

The album is rounded off by my personal favourite `He Would Have Laughed' that is by turns elusive, enigmatic, hypnotic and disarmingly engaging - also a pretty accurate description when applied to the album as a whole. Hey, Deerhunter were just one of those `second release' bands for me - and now healthy respect has blossomed into genuine affection.

Last years Atlas Sound album "Logos" from the Bradford Cox inspired side project was a wicked delight and therefore it is a pleasure to report that his primary source of music making namely the band "Deerhunter" originating out Atlanta, Georgia have come out firing on all cylinders on this brilliant fourth album. That said a slight problem may be in store for those of you still deeply smitten by the 2008 double album and wall of guitar noise beast "Microcastle", since this is altogether a very different proposition. Praise or blame for this must be partly apportioned to the presence of Ben Allen at the mixing desk, this is the man who after all conjured up the sonic alchemy in terms of Animal Collective's 2009 genre defining masterpiece "Merriweather post pavilion".

Check out the watery and sweet "Helicopter" on Halycon Digest and try not to note the presence of otherworldly elements which Avey Tare, Panda Bear and co teased to the forefront on Merriweather (and for good measure also seek out one of the plethora of mixes of this song on the net not least the joyous Star Slinger mash up every bit the darker cousin of Passion Pit's "Sleepyhead"). Truly, truly wonderful stuff in both guises. Then you have the latest single "Revival" a mix of Brian Wilson like "Smile" induced psychedelia and 70's glam rock. This deserves to a chart smash and of course pigs will fly. The six minute plus "Desire lines" alternatively suggests that the Cox might have had an advance copy of the Arcade Fire's "Suburbs" and is full of minor baroque and theatrical flourishes leading up to a storming conclusion which has become the Montreal minstrels signature sound. The Guardian has said of this album that it is "timeless music, seemingly made with the conviction that loveliness will always be lovely" and no where is this more apparent than on the epic album closer "He would have laughed" dedicated to Cox's friend the late Jay Reatard which is a two part song that shifts from a rolling bubbling synth pop with almost a Baba O'Reilly motif to a shift at 5 minutes into a darker song punctuated by contradictory lyrics such as "I lived on a farm, yeah/ I never lived on a farm" which ends so suddenly you despair the CD may be scratched or blotted by a dirty fingerprint. Along the way to this glorious final destination you will encounter other fine songs such as the slow acoustic "Basement scene" which sounds like Buddy Holly on acid, the thumping "Memory Boy" a pop song of such excellence that the British Quality Foundation should investigate and the sax driven "Coronada" which is almost a dirty rocker in this albums context.

This is an absurdly endearing record and even after the first listen you know that you are partaking of a dish to which you will return for afters. There is absolutely no reason why Deerhunter and Bradford Cox in particular shouldn't be names whispered in hushed and hallowed tones around the world of rock/indie music and the phrase "next big thing" attached to them without fear of ridcule. "Halycon Digest" is an album that Cox and Co have threatened to make over the past decade and aren't we especially grateful that they have delivered in full.

I discovered Deerhunter through their excellent third album "Microcastle" in 2008, their first album released by 4AD. Now, with "Halcyon Digest", their "ambient punk" sound has progressed to a kind of a dreamy lo-fi "psychedelic 60s" popsound. The production is lush and clearly showing a more accessible band, with great melodic songs. The songs "Revival", "Helicopter", "Coronado" and "Memory Boy" show exactly that. "Desire Lines" and "Fountain Stairs", with their beautiful wall of sound effect, are two other favorite tracks from this amazing album. And last but not least, remember to check out the great Atlas Sound album "Logos", released last year. Atlas Sound is the hobbyband-project to Deerhunter frontman Brad Cox.