by Gianluigi Marsibilio (@GMarsibilio)
Primordial and ritualistic is the sound of Deerhoof, who are faithful to their aesthetics and history. The idea of Future Teenage Cave Artists is a fascinating foothold, a handhold to a search for creativity in which every atom of chaos is meaningful and expresses the meaning of sonic exploration that is never banal.
The spirit is what led the first men to paint on caves, the record stands as a bridge between symbolism, art, and communication. There is a deep archaism in the drum and bass rhythms. A record of this kind, more than from a musicological point of view, could be analyzed as a theatrical performance at 360°.
"Losing all religion, stay with us" is a sociological mantra. Deerhoof's record is a core of the future of new prehistory, the sounds return to a Zen essence, minimal. The slap stopped bass in "The Loved One" is a sound of cosmic initiation, echoing like a merge between two black holes. The same substance has the rhythmic redundancy of "O Ye Saddle Babes" which clashes with a series of distorted guitar lines that intersect perfectly with the spasmodic rhythm. The words, as the record goes on, become more and more liminal, and get confused between sound and singing, the voice presents itself as a powerful and ancestral instrument. A vocality that in its timbre gives back perfectly that air of exploration. We feel like we’re in front of the black monolith of 2001 Space Odyssey.
The most significant track of the record is "I Call on Thee," a piece in which it reflects and rediscovers a melodic essence, but the original mystical component is not lost. Future Teenage Cave Artists is a journey of humanity from the discovery of sound to the conquest of tonality, a record that should be included in the probes that we send in space because it talks about what we are and maybe what we will be. Deerhoof is an archaeological vanguard.