Deerhoof
Future Teenage Cave Artists
Like a lot of the music they have released over the last quarter-century, the Deerhoof of FTCA stitches together fragments of ‚R&B‘ and ‚Classic Rock‘ and transforms them into a new language of revolution, forgoing verse-chorus structures for dream logic and blind intuition.Auf „Future Teenage Cave Artists“ wollen sich Deerhoof der sich immer schneller verändernden, unsicheren Zukunft musikalisch annähern. Auf dem Album beschäftigen sich die Band mit den Menschen, welche die Welt bereits als verloren betrachten und alle Versuche, sie noch zu retten, für gescheitert erklären. Doch es gibt auch Menschen, die außerhalb des Systems leben, die bereits heute mit neuen Lebensformen überleben – diese hoffnungsvollen Helden sind die Inspiration für die Band. Dies sind die „Future Teenage Cave Artists“. Deerhoof huldigen ihnen in der gleichnamigen Vorabsingle „Future Teenage Cave Artists“. Sänger, Drummer und Pianist Greg Saunier erklärt zum Song: „Building a more beautiful future may require some dismantling of the past. The young rebels are the ones trying to save us.“ Deerhoof (Satomi Matsuzaki an Bass und Gesang, Ed Rodriguez und John Dieterich an den Gitarren und Greg Saunier an Schlagzeug, Gesang und Klavier) mischen Fragmente aus R&B und klassischem Rock zusammen und verwandeln sie in eine neue Sprache musikalischer Revolution, wobei sie auf gängige Strukturen verzichten und stattdessen auf Intuition und verträumte Klänge setzen. Was „Future Teenage Cave Artists“ besonders auszeichnet, ist die klangliche Intimität – zu Blues-Riffs und Slide-Gitarren gesellen sich rostige Klaviere und geflüsterte dreistimmige Harmonien. Für den Protagonisten von „Future Teenage Cave Artists“ lauert die Gefahr hinter jeder Ecke. Außerdem muss er der heranwachsenden Generation dabei zusehen, wie sie verwaist, da die ältere Generation an der Macht eher das Ende der Welt in Kauf nimmt als das Ende des Kapitalismus. Deerhoof blicken auf „Future Teenage Cave Artists“ bereits auf die Zeit nach der Endzeit in der nicht nur die Ernährungssysteme, die Energiesysteme und die politischen Systeme wiederaufgebaut werden. Auch die Mythen, Geschichten und Rituale, mit denen wir uns einen Sinn in der Welt verschaffen, müssen revidiert werden. Die Songs auf „Future Teenage Cave Artists“ fragen: Wie passt man sich an eine immer bedrohlichere und sich schnell verändernde Welt an – mental, emotional, physisch, spirituell? Könnten unsere Netzwerke gegenseitiger Hilfe unser bestes Beispiel für Zivilisation sein, die Ausstellungen in kleinen Heimwerkerkellern die wirkliche hohe Kunst?
Over the past couple of years while making their new album, Deerhoof have been asking themselves if there was any music they could create that expressed how our rapidly emerging future might actually feel. The band envisioned an album about people haunted by memory of a lost world and of every failed attempt to save it. People already living outside the system, already having practiced new ways of life required for survival – these hopeful heroes are Deerhoof’s inspiration. These are the FTCA. Faithful listeners will recognize a certain alienated but transformational figure who shows up in Deerhoof songs going back to their earliest days. Take the narrator of The Perfect Me from 2007’s Friend Opportunity: an orphaned but eager soul attempting to entice other wounded wanderers who might lack a home, a clan, a family, a history. But on FTCA our protagonist is threatened by terror lurking around every corner. Add to that the fact that our ‚cast-off queen,‘ our ‚maniac,‘ our ‚terrible daughter‘ is watching themselves get orphaned in real time, by an older generation in power that would seemingly rather see life on Earth destroyed than let go of archaic systems of capital.
Like a lot of the music they have released over the last quarter-century, the Deerhoof of FTCA (Satomi Matsuzaki on bass and vocals, Ed Rodriguez and John Dieterich on guitars, and Greg Saunier on drums, vocals and piano) stitches together fragments of ‚r&b‘ and ‚classic rock‘ and transforms them into a new language of revolution, forgoing verse-chorus structures for dream logic and blind intuition. But what makes this album different is its intimacy, the blues riffs and slide guitars are joined by rusty pianos and whispered three-part harmonies. In this sense, FTCA inverts the formula of Deerhoof’s last album, Mountain Moves, which invited a wide community of collaborators to band together in an open celebration of solidarity. The new one, on the other hand, is borne of self-isolation and deprivation. It’s the sound of a sparkling, manic musical intelligence being disconnected from a nourishing public and devouring itself inside its own cocoon, attempting metamorphosis. Guitar pedals malfunction mid-take, reverbs chop off mid-tail, drum fills get abandoned mid-phrase. Some musical moments, as gorgeous and touching as anything Deerhoof has ever written, stop short for no apparent reason, giving way to queasy smudges of sound. Many of the instruments and voices were recorded with nothing more than the built-in mic of a laptop. Harsh splices make no effort to hide the seams. In this way FTCA joins a long and storied lineage of pop records that expose the insular and reclusive nature of the recording process itself.
Like Let It Be, There’s a Riot Goin‘ On, or Sister Lovers, this record is its own „making-of.“ Absence is a central character in the drama. For every heartwarming melody or pile-up of parade drums or shard of loopy guitar noise, there is musical acknowledgement of the toll that constant threat of cataclysm takes on mental health. All funerals remind us that life goes on, somehow. In that time after the end times, it’s not only the food systems, energy systems, and political systems that will have to be rebuilt. Myths, stories, and rituals we use to make sense of the world are up for revision, too. This is a record about resilience and the persistence of hope in a future beyond any reasonable justification for it. Like so many young people today, Deerhoof seems to be already living in that future.
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Ltd. LP red
LP