Gliss Riffer
*Gliss Riffer* takes several directions. Some tracks slant toward EDM-inspired pop music (“Learning to Relax,” “Mind on Fire”) with conventional-like vocals. That is, even with a Vocoder and pitch shifts, it’s relatively easy to hear where Dan Deacon’s going with the tune. And then there are ambitious instrumental pieces (“Take It to the Max,” “Steely Blues”) that demonstrate beauty beyond basic minimalism into fields so dramatic that they do nearly take one’s breath away as a quarter-hour ticks away. Deacon underpins songs with anxiety-ridden rhythms, life-affirming harmonies, and vocal freakouts that only an inspired madman would dare assemble.
Gliss Riffer marks new territory for Deacon who, following up on the release of his large ensemble-based recordings - 2009's Bromst and 2012's America - decided to return to a simpler way of writing and recording, similar to that of 2007's Spiderman of the Rings, which resulted in this self-produced album. What Gliss Riffer shares with Spiderman of the Rings as a musical experience is a direct and ecstatic energy. It trades in exuberant, uncontained fun that is tempered by lyrics that yearn and are set in defiance of life's nagging anxiety. The bliss on this record is well-earned.
The electro-disco lead single to Gliss Riffer suggested that Dan Deacon's first LP in three years might bring hooks and lighthearted mania back to the fore, but the album mostly just feels like a pared-back, intuitive way of working. As on all of Deacon's albums, it's the moments where he seems to be discovering something new that prove the most exciting.
Dan Deacon probably had a vision of making an accessible album when he sat down to do Gliss Riffer. The first half of the record plays to the cheap seats, with slices of catchy, hummable melodies and baldly commercial vocals seemingly designed for maximum pop appeal. This isn’t shocking—Deacon has always been a…
A transition rather than a transformation, but one to rejoice in nonetheless.
‘Gliss Riffer’ demonstrates Deacon’s mind-boggling ability to find order, and not only that, but brilliance, in sheer chaos.
After the creative maturity and ambition of 2012's America, Dan Deacon may appear to have taken a step back with his 2015 effort Gliss Riffer, which abandons the orchestrations and the more thoughtful mood of that album for a more explicitly pop-oriented vision, dominated by the playful clatter of sequenced beats, the buzz and sweep of dozens of vintage keyboards, and layers of vocals that have been vocodered into vintage sci-fi timbres or pitch-shifted into distant relatives of Alvin Chipmunk.
Following the musical heights reached on 2012's America, Dan Deacon decided to pursue a "less is more" approach when it came to writing a ne...
Dan Deacon doesn't do things by halves. The Baltimore-based electro producer has spent a career throwing himself into grey-matter clattering sonic spectrums that sound like they've been rewired by some madcap genius inventor. A half-assed Dan Deacon recor
Deacon’s albums work off the same junky rec-room orchestration, with low- and high-culture elements all reduced to mere building blocks.
Review of the new album 'Gliss Riffer' by Dan Deacon. The LP comes out February 23 on Domino Records. The lead single "Feel The Lightning" is now available.
Experimental pop outsider Dan Deacon relaxes into his own madcap sound on his terrific fourth album