Dan Deacon is a man renowned for his madcap live performances. Performing from the middle of the crowd is a given, while inciting his audiences to indulge in mass organised dance routines are also regular occurrences. Usually, such levels of giddy mania are difficult to translate to recorded output, but the Baltimore electro-whizz had no trouble doing so on his 2007 breakthrough album 'Spiderman of the Rings'.
'Bromst' is its much-anticipated follow-up, but to call it a more 'mature' record would be ultimately futile. Dan Deacon doesn't really 'do' maturity. To call it an 'experimental' one would be equally pointless, for different reasons; of course any album that incorporates the cacophony of noise displayed here (and on 'Spiderman..') is experimental to some degree.
'Bromst' does mark a development of Deacon's sound, though. 'Padding Ghost' is an initial highlight: it's a catchy, purposeful explosion of stop-start synths that takes corners faster than the speed of light to change key. Elsewhere, 'Surprise Stefani''s disembodied ghost-in-the-machine ambience soon transforms into a glistening squall of electronica; 'Of the Mountains' sounds like Ladysmith Black Mambazo at a rave, while the epic 'Baltihorse' has fizzy elements of The Crazy Frog after a double dose of Skittles.
The only problem with 'Bromst' is that sometimes it seems like there's almost too much crammed into each song. Unlike Deacon's previous material, it's not the sort of endearingly eccentric electro-pop album to enjoy while going about your business; rather, it demands your full attention, and can resultantly seem a tad overpowering and intense if you're not feeling cooperative. There's a lot to get stuck into here, though, particularly on repeat listens.
