Deerhoof / Deerhoof vs Evil

Deerhoof
Deerhoof vs Evil
(ATP Recordings)

Like a satellite that’s randomly sampling whatever data happens to be floating around its space-stream, Deerhoof’s 11th album is a collage of information, all buzzing through the central storyline of the songs, sometimes complimenting them, occasionally flicking the channel like a hyperactive kid at cartoon time.
And all of which could probably drive you mental, were it not for the soothing, reassuring voice at the center of it all: singer Satomi leads a pathway through the space debris with her inherently self-trusting sense of purpose.
Right! That’s enough scene-setting, let’s check out the songs. ‘Behold A Marvel’ is a sprightly pop number which bounces along rather cutely until - eh oh - something pulls the trapdoor from underneath it, allowing in a steaming rush of demonic guitars. Better watch out for that Evil, Deerhoof.
‘The Merry Barracks’ sounds like a room full of arcade machines by night, turning themselves on one by one and starting a composition, which gradually morphs into cyber-funk. Usually when machinery goes organic, it scares the pants off humans. In this case through, it’s top of the pops.
The Legend of Zelda springs to mind during the computer game heroine theme of ‘Super Duper Rescue Heads’, which is also the most electronically experimental song on the record; your brain has to work fast to compute all the miniature puzzles compressed into the grooves.
But then that’s the general rule of this mystical album: one minute we’ll be lazing in a hammock on a Hawaiian beach, the next we’ll be whizzing down the fibre-optics of a microchip. Weird noises run loose, from neon light bulbs floating weightlessly into the night sky (‘Let’s Dance The Jet’) to lightsabers being used as drumsticks (‘Behold A Marvel’).
Deerhoof are not evil though; they know that for every _weird effect they employ, the songs have gotta be tough to rise to the surface. Hence the album’s most beautiful moments are naturally dreamlike: the forest under the stars atmosphere of ‘Must Fight Current’, the abstract nursery rhyme of ‘C’Moon’. All said and done, the most magical thing about Deerhoof’s space satellite is the human heart at its controls.