Combine live performances and songwriting with a youthful bend towards electronic music and you have high-quality work by real people that has the potential to find a unique popularity with the techno-lovers of the world.
Sound too good to work? Last year saw the release of St. Germain's Tourist, a complex and beautiful patchwork of live jazz and electronic music - easily one of the finest albums of the year. In the aftermath, live/electronic combo discs are popping up with more frequency as record labels realize there's an audience for relaxed, highly intelligent electronica and that real, live musicians often have exactly the edge listeners are looking for.
The New Deal is one of these upstarts, and it feels good. In concept, the energy of a live jam-band and the intricacy and planning of a DJ is a great thing. The New Deal does not drop the ball.
Working without a DJ - the group consists of a bass, keyboard, drums, and a beatbox - the members of the New Deal have the freedom to "mix" in ways that a real DJ could never achieve on a mix CD. Bits of the third track, "Exciting New Direction," show up five minutes before the song itself even begins. The flexibility of real musicians and their ability to create new music creates new opportunities. The album does not consist of songs mixed together or even retuned old songs, but rather all original music. Think of it as a 61-minute concert.
Down to the meat of it, the New Deal provides varied, head-bopping sounds that never diverge into the angry or demanding end of electronic music. If you're looking for a checklist, though, there are three things it gets right that you won't always find done well: polyrhythmic beats, rich bass melodies, and vocal samples.
The underlying rhythm of any given song is never simple or repetitive. The live mentality of the group seems to give it ears enough to play with drumlines mid-song. With New Deal member Darren Shearer on both a beatbox and drums, there's the potential for highly varied breakbeats and rhythmic tricks. Don't expect repeated blasts of bong-rattling bass to provide the backbone of any track - the interiors of the songs are so complex that when the group cuts everything off for momentary interludes of simplicity, the stark contrast wakes you up immediately.
The lack of overpowered bass, however, doesn't imply a lack of intelligent bass. With Dan Kurtz providing basswork for the group, there is no shortage of complex, ever-changing melodies in the lower register. Don't expect Phish-like picking, but the New Deal's relation to jam-bands and the potential to perform original music can make for some creative moments, and it's more consistently interesting than the simplistic rhythm sections you may hear in pure electronic music.
As for the vocals: there aren't many, and they don't have the same grade of cheesy lyrics you find in most electronica. Some cringeworthy stupid lines make it even into the songs spun by the world's top DJs, and while they don't always get in the way, they certainly don't make things any better. The New Deal uses vocals sparingly - good luck finding more than a few distinct ones on the album - and where they are used, it's not as a focus for the song but as an accent. In the first track, when you hear, "Now if you've got a pair of headphones, you better put 'em on and get 'em cranked up," you'll want to pay attention.
Only a few times, especially on "Deep Sun" and "Technobeam," the New Deal pushes you towards the dance floor with some shaking tracks. For the most part, the album is too much about relaxing to whip anyone into a frenzy. This is not to say it's boring, however; it's just more suited to walking around with headphones on or to hanging out with friends than to buffeting yourself against other people's sweaty bodies.
The bottom line: The New Deal isn't a party mix. If you're looking for sinfully beautiful single moments in the middle of a song - the kind that club-heads live for - you might not find enough of them on The New Deal to keep you happy and your dance floor writhing. But if you want something that's solid throughout and will hit you just enough times to make it count, the New Deal would be happy to oblige. With the long bouncy buildups of many of the tracks and the few roaring, beautiful moments, the album does not disappoint.
