Opposite ends of electronic music collide today with Dan Deacon dropping his eagerly anticipated follow-up to 2010’s Bromst and youngster Haleek Maul dropping a free mixtape produced by Chicago duo Supreme Cuts. Though the albums sound nothing alike, both are created by heavy-hitting artists whose music skirts even the fringe of pop music.
Dan Deacon
America
Domino
If this is Dan Deacon’s vision of America, it’s a vision I can get behind. Like all of his releases, America is a complex, difficult listen. Equal parts sublime and ingratiating, the album delivers a schizophrenic portrait of America far removed from “Americana”—but probably a little more accurate. Take the single “True Thrush.” In probably the catchiest Dan Deacon song to date, he envelops his lyrics in a hurricane of bloops, bleeps and a choir. He follows that song up with a Xiu Xiu-inspired squall of white noise called, “Lots.” This is TV. This is the Internet. This is American life—a sometimes scary—but more often beautiful—land of complexity.
Check out “True Thrush” here:
Supreme Cuts & Haleek Maul
Chrome Lips
Mishka
Supreme Cuts are a stellar production duo from Chicago. Haleek Maul’s a 16-year-old rapper from Barbados. The Internet serendipitously brought them together for Chrome Lips, among the better underground rap releases of the year. On first listen, Maul sounds a little like an anti-backpack rap, sexist Neanderthal, but he’s got a postmodern awareness and self-critique well beyond his years. He’s not quite as in-your-face as Danny Brown, or as stoned as SpaceGhostPurrp, but Maul knows how to spit a verse.
Check out a track from Chrome Lips here: