When I get a new album to review, I usually throw it on loop while at my day job, rocking some tunage while doing my (somewhat incredibly repetitive) IT work. Coming into work on Monday the 10th, I figured it would be another (Mon)day at the office, made tolerable by perhaps another favorite new album, undiscovered artist, or heck, even a reasonably well arranged single. Grabbing a cup of coffee, I loaded the new Dearling Physique album into iTunes, plugged in my headphones and pressed play.
Our Editor in Chief had pitched the album to me as American Electronic, which left me minorly in the proverbial dark, but part of me was hopeful that it would run along my general techno/DnB/Eurotrash club mix obsessions. However, within the first fifteen seconds those hopes were crushed, but what I ran into was instead a little….. unnerving might be the best word to describe it.
The next thirty-eight minutes and thirty-four seconds had me entirely fixated, captivated, on an aural journey that was at once both incredibly profound and mind-numbing, and nothing like what I was expecting. I turned iTunes up, adjusted my equalizer, and sat back to absorb the general onslaught of noise that I was subjecting my ears to. The massive amount of pure raw sound was practically breathtaking and left me staring at iTunes almost dumbfounded before scrambling to press play again as soon as the album ended.
Deadeye Dealer is the first full length album from Dearling Physique, a project from artist Domino Davis and three accomplices, joining in with keys, guitar, and drums, which combine together for a potent mix of general noise and musical genius that is verges on indescribable. At first listen, it’s hard to pick apart separate sounds amongst the combined cacophony, but upon revisiting the tracks, the obvious, painstaking care that was put into the tracks is more than evident. The experimental arrangements are exquisite in their complexity, and the captivating and ever-evolving tracks show them off to their full potential- ebbing and rising with such intensity that your eardrums will ache with the blatant talent and sheer force of the passion ingrained into the very tracks themselves.
The album itself takes you on an incredible excursion through the dark part of the human psyche, probing at the fermented dark corners of our own souls and hearts, exposing them to the light for examination- blatant, sensual, raw, and pulsating with quiet patience, without expectation or apologies. It’s atmospheric and avant-garde, personal and yet incredibly larger than ourselves, filled with ambient noise and precisely crafted genre-bending sounds. A heady mix of soul and pop, layered with a lush undertone of electronic, funk, and R&B, Deadeye Dealer transforms the simple act of listening to an album into an experience that will be both relevant and timeless for many years to come.
Tracks that really caught my attention start off with “Can’t say no,” the addictive hook that catches the attention right off the bat, as the first track on the album, complete with the ending lyrics that are reminiscent of slam poetry in divey Seattle coffee bars (and a scene from the film Brick, in which Laura reads a version of “The Sun, Whose Rays Are All Ablaze”, written by W. S. Gilbert, from the comic opera The Mikado). Following up is the “Waste,” “Oh This Currency,” and “Hooks for Safety,” which pull you along through the graphically charged modulations, lending a sense of sensory depravity before landing you in the middle of the first single, “Discipline Your Hands,” which both ties up the album and leaves you wanting more, as well as blinking in surprise at the general events that have just occurred within yourself.
For a first album, Dearling Physique has set the bar incredibly high for themselves. They are definitely a band to watch out for over the next few years as groundbreakers for more genre-bending and synthesia-inducing music, but be prepared to see them where you least expect it. I have a feeling that they have a few more tricks up their sleeve- leaving the best yet to come.
Pick up Deadeye Dealer today, 1/11/2011.
Track Listing:
1. Can’t Say No
2. Obsession Kills
3. Monster
4. Waste
5. Your Condition
6. On This Currency
7. Sleep and the Heart
8. Hooks for Safety
9. Teenage Romance
10. Discipline Your Hands
Find Dearling Physique here:
Website
