(Ain’t) “Living in a movie, but a franchise” – sing Tom Barman on the brand new dEUS album and once again, I’m thrilled by this Belgian band while I love them since I heard for the very first time “Suds & Soda” back in 1994. This music is not so complicated, but subtle and smoothly sophisticated, maybe they lost something from the biting wildness of their first period, but dEUS remains really alternative, truly indie – although singed to multinationals, and the same original outfit. Juggling between – and through – twisted blues, free jazz skronk, post-grunge dissonances and gloomy art rock explorations, dEUS delivered an unique blend of music. Perhaps “Vantage Point” back in 2008 was their smoothest release up to date, but still they have the magic power to hypnotize us.
“Keep You Close” is a cinematic opening filled with subtle string arrangements, it has a sad vibe, but the bitterness is merged into a rock vibe and the symphonic arrangement offers an epic taste and excellent groove to the song. dEUS prove to be charming again and extremely human, life-close.
“The Final Blast” kick out with a buzzing bass, a jazzy groove is dissolved into some gloomy, smoky theme, the piano and the guitar bring different tastes into it, quite hypnotizing song, jazz and experimental rock collide smoothly into one.
“Dark Sets In” is a groovy, dirty, full of energy rock tune, bring back something from the rawness of the “Worst Case Scenario” (1994) and “In a Bar, Under the Sea” (1996) era.
“Twice” balancing between a smooth, jazzy theme and that special, dEUS flavored tension, the chorus is sparkling and an absolutely sing-along while the verses and the lead stay in an obscure, smooth and shady area, nice combination of moods.
“Ghosts” contains the lines I mentioned: “I wasn’t living in a movie, but a franchise”. A quite Latino rhythm is twisted into a modern groove somewhere halfway between rock and hip-hop, and while the guitar deliver riffing, the horn section bring some swinging mood into it, the song have an excellent groove and grew explosively. “Hu-ha!” 😀
“Constant Now” is the leading single, kind of pretty good snapshot of what dEUS sounds nowadays, jazzy solutions and funky horns, smooth pianos and driven guitars, combined and blended smoothly, magically, perfectly.
“The End Of Romance” put some pulsing jazz grooves gently in the background while the driving element is the voice which guiding us through the minimal construction of bass and drum (or drum ‘n’ bass? 😀 ) colored by nice guitar play. Very sentimental. As the whole album.
“Second Nature” give us another taste of the more cutting, more breathing dEUS, although the piano is backed-up by another nice string orchestration and the rock song is twisted smoothly into something quite different, but definitively dEUS.
“Easy” and its almost 7 minutes is the darkest and most experimental moment of the set, extremely tensioned, but still kind of smooth, the noises and the piano make such a beautiful pair that it’s almost hurt. Maybe you know what I mean…
Consenting adults and …concerned adults.
Beautiful. Listenable. Addictive. Just can’t turn it off. Thanks.
dEUS – Keep You Close (2011) by dEUSbe
“Keep You Close”, the forthcoming sixth album by dEUS will be released on September 19th in Europe and on October 3rd in the UK.
dEUS – Official Site
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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5FevW0pJvI&w=545&h=336]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FywJkdYc110&w=545&h=336]
