Dan Deacon

For somewhere around six years now, Dan Deacon has plied his trade as a sort of computer-generated/electronic music guru, seemingly pushing the boundaries of the medium, yet probably doing more to entertain himself. As such, your opinion of his works are more than likely related to your degree of appreciation for the electronic form, unless you were one of the many that revered him for 2007's Spiderman of the Rings album, one of those critical darlings.

On Bromst, Deacon continues down that road, creating a potpourri of electronic sounds with a wide variety of synthetic beats (often tribal-esque and rather upbeat) with lukewarm, pop-based melodies and the many filtered forms taken by his voice, including periodic layering/backing-vocal effects. The videogame sounds surface frequently, sometimes to interesting effect, but more often than not detracting from the few decent melodies contained herein. For as mildly intriguing as the work may seem during the album's first half, it sounds just as mundane and tired during the second. The Deacon devotees will surely flock to it; everyone else will find it little more than amusing when taken in small doses.

—Scott Alisoglu
04.10.09

From the first few minutes of Bromst, Dan Deacon's second Carpark full-length, it appears he may be going back to his university days at SUNY-Purchase, where he studied electro-acoustic composition. A slow-building track, naturally called "Build Voice," it repeats his vocal sample over and over with plenty of reverb -- an avant-garde piece, for sure. Still, it's only an introduction, and Bromst unfurls as an extravaganza of noise-pop that looks, not to the dance field, but to the slowly burgeoning indie rock fetish of voices, either in harmony or in chorus (think of Animal Collective, Fleet Foxes). Fans of Deacon's work won't necessarily be excited to hear that he's moving closer to blog favorites of the late 2000s, but his production and arranging skills illustrate that he's a powerful force no matter what the format. Although it's just as frenetic as his breakthrough, 2007's Spiderman of the Rings, there's also the sense that Deacon is pulling back from Spiderman's cartoonish mayhem; there are more pauses for breath, more experimentalism on display (and consequently, less mashing of breakbeats and signal processors), and a few meditative songs. Midway through the album, the seven-minute "Snookered" spends its first half quietly sublime before gradually intensifying into the insistent type of cut-up Deacon's made his reputation on. Maturity can be dangerous to your artistic health, but Bromst shows the right way to mature -- broaden your vision while still spending plenty of time on what you do best. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide