THE MAN, THE KING, THE GIRL

DEERHOOF continued their wildly experimental noise rock sound combined with the cutesy twee pop vocals of Satomi Matsuzaki on their second album THE MAN, THE KING, THE GIRL. Like their previous album and EPs, the music is a combination of the harsh atonal dissonant noise punk of Rob Fisk on guitar and Greg Saunier on drums with the entire emphasis on creating the most surreal soundscapes humanly possible. Of course all of these madness becomes even weirder as Matsuzaki flirts her childish innocence with a Cibo Matto flair and in tandem DEERHOOF create one of the weirdest albums of the 90s as they take the noise rock approach of bands like Sonic Youth and torture the compositions into amorphous creations that sound more like a Sun Ra album gone really wild back in the day at least in terms of sheer 'out-there-ness.'

While DEERHOOF would tame their sound immensely on their later albums, on THE MAN, THE KING, THE GIRL the trio remains in utter reckless abstraction thus embodying the true definition of noise rock only with more sophisticated methods of escapism from the norm than the typical band associated with the term. In this regard they are closer to the anarchic noisy freneticism of early Boredoms and fellow San Franciscans Caroliner with their desire to avoid normalcy at all costs. However despite the weird for the sake of weird being the main staple on board, some tracks like 'Polly Bee' come off as simple little indie pop rock songs that wouldn't sound out of place on a Guided By Voices or Sebadoh type of indie rock album.

The beauty isn't necessary the abstract break-ever-musical-rule element embedded in every untuned note and abused beat with DEERHOOF at this stage, but its really with the creative diversity with which they carry these wild antics out. Like any good avant-artist out there, the band learned how to create recognizable patterns of sound under the seemingly formless mass of sound. 'Gold On Black' even has a Hendrix-esque riff to accompanied by some sort of rhythmic gamelan sounding tones, whereas 'Gore In Rut' exhibits a veritable garage band jam complete with snarling feedback and Princess Matsuzaki daintily repeating 'Bunny, bunny, bunny' amidst the chaotic feedback-fest that surrounds her thus exhibiting her most twee pop performance on the album.

While some tracks like 'For Those Of Us On Foot' are purely non-musical with only intermittent pointillistic cymbals and vocal weirdness emerging, most tracks are quite grounded in some form of rock music but have been processed by the musicians' bizarre rendition of reality leaving one of the most surreal experiences even within the highly experimental canon of DEERHOOF themselves. It goes without saying that DEERHOOF is an acquired taste that will only appeal to those who can enjoy music that revels in breaking all the rules and delivers a hefty dose of shock and awe in its wake. While this is the kind of stuff that may be experienced as repulsive by many, the acclamation of such styles of music has left me under its spell and i find THE MAN, THE KING, THE GIRL to be a very brilliant escape into the demented yet brilliant minds of those who insist on creating a style of music never heard before.