by Cole Makuch
When an independent artist finally makes the leap to recording an album entirely in a studio, an abstract fear surfaces for some that the group’s music will lose some identity that made prior releases so special. Then again, most artists haven’t recently released a near hour-long live-recorded album featuring a medley of Stockhausen, Star Trek, Pauline Oliveros, and The Muppets. Rest assured, Deerhoof is soundly behind the wheel. Miracle-Level presents less as a studio recording and more as a perfect performance observed from an ideal location, and Deerhoof takes the opportunity to construct some of their widest ranging dynamics to date. Their sonic palette spans from saliva punctuating an intimate vocal take and a piano pedal engaging and disengaging to, when the band lays in, the harder guitar rock sound that makes up a large chunk of the group’s discography.
Compositionally, Miracle-Level is Deerhoof at their best. The group maintains a distinct counterpoint that gives their arrangements cohesion as if they were created by a single mind, and also remarkable consistency in their ability to never quite land where you expect them to. One only has to make it about twenty seconds into the first track to be blindsided by a needley guitar harmony toppling any sense of stability that the marching drums and staccato bass seek to create. On “Everybody, Marvel,” the drums take the destabilizing role, tottering an otherwise monolithic wall of guitars with their hesitation, before the whole band collapses into a chorus that somehow sounds like it’s simultaneously ascending and melting like a wax barber’s pole mounted on a gyro spit. The frequent and aggressive turns can be jarring upon first listen, as there is seldom a period of consonance that lasts longer than a few measures. When there is, history shows that it won’t last.
There are flashes of brilliance throughout the album. Deerhoof offer expressions of raw, extreme emotions that are sometimes absent when artists pursue influences so epic that few bands can even cite them, and fewer still can faithfully execute them in the form of a four-piece. It’s a pretty awesome power for a band to wield.