The Fat Angel Sings

DEERHOOF long ago established themselves as one of the greatest rock groups ever to stride the earth, the furiously inventive quartet releases new albums on the schedule of a young band still hungry for its first break. Their latest album‘Noble and Godlike in Ruin’ (their 19th studio album) is either a portrait of a world descending into monstrous hate, dehumanization, and dollar signs, or a haunting self-portrait of band-as-monster, singing tirelessly of love, increasingly alienated from that world. Songs crash and break apart, then reassemble in surprising and delightful new fashion.
The music is joyful and foreboding, cybernetic and deeply human, all at once. Strings that evoke avant-garde chamber music and classic horror-film soundtracks bounce off guitar and bass lines that chug on impervious to the creeping dread.

The drums are sometimes filtered to sound almost electronic, but no computer could come up with rhythms so funky and dynamic, with each minute variation from one snare hit to the next conveying worlds of possibility. The world may be going down, but Deerhoof is going down swinging.

It’s simply amazing that this US/Japanese quartet is now celebrating their 31st year. Though Deerhoof long ago established itself as one of the greatest rock groups ever to stride the earth—and if you think that’s hyperbole, you haven’t spent enough time listening to Deerhoof —the furiously inventive quartet releases new albums on the schedule of a young band still hungry for its first break. As “Noble and Godlike in Ruin” reaffirms, each one discovers some previously unknown combination of candy-coated hard-rock riffs and free-jazz percussive freakouts, sideways J-pop hooks and fearsome dissonance, trenchant social commentary and surrealist humour. This music is joyful and foreboding, cybernetic and deeply human, carrying an implicit note of defiant optimism in their refusal to bow to convention or received wisdom. Fronting it all is Satomi Matsuzaki’s inimitable alto, whose plainspoken calm can seem strangely outside of the band’s maelstrom. Deerhoof is defined by such paradoxes.

released April 25th, 2025