DEERHOOF - ACTUALLY YOU CAN (OLIVE GREEN) Vinyl LP

On Chlorophyll (Olive Green) Vinyl. Over eighteen boundless albums as experimental as they are pop, Deerhoof hascontinuously quested for radical sounds and daring storytelling. 2020's FutureTeenage Cave Artists explored fairytale visions of post-apocalypse, welding intrinsicmelodies with absurdist digital recording methods. It's sequel Love-Lore, a livecovers medley, channeled futurist mid-century artists-Parliament, Sun Ra andStockhausen, to name a handful- into a patchwork love letter to the anti-authoritarian expressions that inspire the band. Galvanized by the challenge of unifying manystyles of music, Deerhoof landed on their next record's concept: baroque gone DIY.Actually, You Can is a genre-abundant record that uses technicolor vibrancy andarpeggiated muscularity to offer a vital shock from capitalism's purgatorial hold. "Inthe United States now, to be a moral person means to be a criminal, whether it hasto do with a general strike or forming a union or Black Lives Matter protests,"clarifies Saunier of the album's countercultural embrace of liberation. "If you followthe rules, you're guilty. That's the spirit we were trying to express: an angelic prisonbust, a glamorous prison bust." It's a condemnation of America's mundanity,replacing violence with the heartfelt power of mutualism.With state lines and oceans separating band members, Deerhoof not onlyreinvented their sonic and thematic credo, but also their recording process.Deerhoof's players are not strangers to home-recording their individual parts, andhave long embraced composing via file trading. But 2020's halt to touring kicked offtheir longest separation from playing together, foregrounding new priorities. As thegroup's combined demos became increasingly layered, bassist and vocalist SatomiMatsuzaki put her foot down, insisting the new album should replicate concertenergy. Visualizing the quartet on huge stages with past tourmates Radiohead andRed Hot Chili Peppers, Saunier fugue-arranged his bandmates' complex demos intosongs to make an audience smile and dance. He sought out far-traveling delays,heavy playing, and unique panning to evoke the power of outdoor music. Matsuzakiscrutinized spots that would betray the conceit, eliminating anything that took awayfrom the sound of onstage grandeur. "We spent so much time imagining playingtogether in the process of recording, it's almost like a false memory of us playing thismusic together," Saunier marvels.For Deerhoof's members to continually uncover new corners of their own talentrequires deep wells of gratitude, not only for each others' creativity but for thefreedom their career affords. But by embracing each other's art with curiosity,Deerhoof authors a musical alphabet that continues to astound and inspire, aunique lexicon expanding limitlessly with each album. For new listeners anddecades-long devotees, Deerhoof's electrifying, generous approach to collaborativeworldbuilding on Actually, You Can is an emboldening call to support ourcommunities with renewed strength, infinite love, and the resilience to keepexploring.

Label: Joyful Noise Records