Deerhunter have released their new single, “Element” from the forthcoming studio album, Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? The tune is almost like an elegy for the environment and given the current commander in chief’s plans, who’s to say that the song isn’t prophetic? Regardless of your political stance, check out the tune. Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared will appear on January 18, 2019.
Deerhunter’s eighth LP Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared forgets the questions and makes up unrelated answers. It gets up, walks around, it records itself in several strategic geographic points across North America. It comes home, restructures itself and goes back to bed to avoid the bad news.
What they spend their time doing instead is reinventing their approach to microphones, the drum kit, the harpsichord, the electromechanical and synthetic sounds of keyboards. Whatever guitars are left are pure chrome, plugged straight into the mixing desk with no amplifier or vintage warmth. The result is as thrilling, haunting, and unpredictable as anything in their roughly 15-year career.
Deerhunter have made a science fiction album about the present. Is it needed right now? Is it relevant? Perhaps only to a small audience. DADA was a reaction to the horrors of war. Punk was a reaction to the slow and vacant ’70s. Hip Hop was a liberated musical culture that challenged the notions presented wholesale about the African-American experience. What is popular music today a reaction to?
