Album Review
Deerhoof – Matchbook Seeks Maniac
Deerhoof’s organ laden latest comes with the sweetest of vocals, which should come from Scandanavia not a Japanese lead west coast San Francisco trio. If you’re looking for comparisons for this wonderfully offbeat group you’d be pulling in the Concretes or Sigor Ros. These are even more oddball than the latter.
The words here are so strung out that they blend together in hanging fuzz. It’s a bitter syrupy mix of heavy bass and mourning organ mixed with the innocent beauty of lead girl Satomi Matsuzaki’s vocal; music to climb glaciers to and yet however epic and fresh this sounds it can fill a room with warmth. A film would be a better place with this in its score; and then you find out it comes from the Justin Theroux picture ‘Dedication’, it is more than capable of adding memorable emotion. ‘Matchbook Seeks Maniac’ is some triumph for a band into their thirteenth year together. Taken from ‘Friend Opportunity’, Deerhoof’s latest album is as good as anything yet released. Who knows where they will go from here. B-Side to ‘Matchbook’ Japanese language ‘Makko Shobu’ recalls an earlier, baffling Deerhoof but they make perfect sense now, even in foreign tongue. Despite the mass of instrument and whirling noise the B-side is itself something to behold. This single confirms the strides taken towards major success but without ever involving the conventional; David Shrigley’s equally innovative artwork adds to the occasion.
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