A cuckoo-brained computer musician from Baltimore, DAN DEACON picked up a thing or two about sampling and composition at Purchase College’s music conservatory and at age 24 already has six solo releases to his name. He’s done artsy, minimal twiddling and tonal haikus as well as some, like, totally groundbreaking IDM, and he’s working on an EP of music assembled entirely from his own vocals and much-abused Buddy Holly samples. But his favorite thing to do (other than name songs–“This Crazy Mouse Won’t Leave Me Alone” and “All Wet and No Boner” are pretty representative) is whip twinkly analog melodies into a creamy froth with happy-dog-humping-a-leg beats. He sings vocodered nonsense about pizza and fantastic animals over electrocution blasts, chipmunk chatter, and “does not compute” bleeps and bloops, and though he often starts a song precious and twee, midway through he’ll go nuts: a secret grotto becomes a haunted cave, a gentle waterfall turns into a tape unwinding in a broken deck, horn stings sour into whoopee-cushion queefs. But even at its weirdest, it’s all so catchy it’s almost sickening.
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Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Andrea Bauer.
