D'Eon - Palinopsia
- Written by Greg Salter
LA-based label Hippos In Tanks released a few of 2010’s more interesting releases, with records by Games, Gatekeeper and White Car all arriving within a few months of each other. They look like they’re about to make an even bigger splash in 2011, with releases on the way from Sleep-Over, Autre Ne Veut and Hype Williams all scheduled for the next few months. None of these records share a particular style, genre or outlook, though they all seem to blend vintage or nostalgic references with future pop approaches with particularly unique results.
It’s the more pop oriented moments that stick out initially – the lyrics and melodies on ‘Keep The Faith’ are clearly r’n’b derived, though D’Eon balances these with subtle dance textures and a kind of vocal drone. Meanwhile, ‘What We Want To Be’ invests early ‘90s house with spiritual overtones that I guess many of its original pioneers reckoned it had – the refrain of “we can choose, we can choose what we want to be” could be highly personal to D’Eon (he suffered from anxiety and agoraphobia before spending time in the Himalayas studying Tibetan music and living in a monastery, as you do) or broader and more universal – probably both.
Elements of D’Eon’s backstory and politics do filter into the music on Palinopsia, though they are easy to miss. For instance, ‘Kill A Man With A Joystick In Your Hand’ is clearly concerned with the war-torn Middle East, though his vocals and lyrics are detached and difficult to discern, as they are throughout the record. It does convey a sense of its subject sonically and perhaps criticising Palinopsia for the ambiguity of its politics is something of a moot point – D’Eon seems more concerned with conveying images and moods rather than a particular message.
It’s when this record is at its most heady and intoxicated that it succeeds – ‘Kill A Man With A Joystick In Your Hand’ is one such example, as is the slow-burning opener ‘Palinopsia Intro/Almost Out Of Time’, which drifts subtly from ambient synths into a pulsing, colourful pop song. If at times some instrumental passages can lapse into background music, particularly when his new age influences become most pronounced, there are plenty of occasions when things drift into a more interesting focus. This is music, much like Panda Bear’s Person Pitch or, more recently, How To Dress Well’s Love Remains, that encompasses you, that builds on itself and shifts rather than exterior elements, affecting all your senses, not just what you hear. Palinopsia, though not quite of the quality of those records, is a promising debut – it’ll be interesting to hear where he travels to next.