by Daniel Stevenson (@stevensondl1)
In September of 2020, San Francisco noise-indie-experimental group, Deerhoof, quietly released an unexpected EP titled Love-Lore. To label this release as a cover album would minimize the scope of the group’s vision. With this EP, Deerhoof has created their own living encyclopedia of experimental music. Over five tracks, the group wildly fluctuates through bizarrely intricate medleys that include snippets from television theme songs, experimental composers, and pop music spanning generations. Within parentheses on each track name, the group lists every quoted artist, composer, and author whose work appears in the track. Interspersed and paced by meditative cadenzas and noisy interludes, Deerhoof takes plenty of liberties with sonic texture and reveals the extent of their obsession with recorded sounds of all kinds.
With a Maxwell House jingle listed next to Igor Stravinsky and Karlheinz Stockhausen next to “Rainbow Connection” from The Muppet Movie, Deerhoof embraces mash-up absurdism and combs their net through every layer of the water for musical influence. Highlights include an absolute ripping, Hella-esque version of The Jetsons theme song, a take on Kraftwerk’s “The Robots,” and endless other discoveries awaiting curious and discerning listeners. The entire piece flows through Deerhoof’s brilliant dynamism and rhythmic juxtaposition, supported by lovely crackling and understated vocals and a shimmering guitar tone that is probably still sustaining somewhere out there.
The wonder of this EP is the combination of Deerhoof’s frenetic sound and the eclectic curation of influences. The depth of this collection is almost too dense to retain fully, but in the style of these recordings, listeners are invited to latch onto a section for a time and then gradually let it go to noise before finding another and so on. This album is so sporadic and inclusive that it listens like a reissue of the Voyager Golden Record – the audio representation of life and culture on Earth shot into space for any being who might hear it.
Love-Lore is a beautifully compact and unapologetic collection of an overwhelming variety of music. It merges high-brow with low through five tracks of incredibly measured and composed psychedelic freakouts with strings of quoted musical lines that cross artistic, commercial, and cultural boundaries. You will feel uncomfortable. You will feel stimulated. You will be stoked when you hear “Night Rider” into “Electric Avenue.” Simply put, this album is nuts. Put it on and discover something new.