Deerhoof Green Cosmos

[Menlo Park; 2005]

Rating: 4/5

Styles: experimental noise-pop
Others: Enon, Blonde Redhead, The Shaggs, Shonen Knife


I really almost hated Milk Man at first. It was too "song-y," too pristine, unbalanced, and didn't sound anything like Deerhoof. Of course, like everything Deerhoof does, it made sense with time, and nothing has helped illustrate to me why Milk Man was good more than Green Cosmos.

The EP feels even more like just a collection of songs than Milk Man did, but I've learned to look past that. In fact you could almost divide it exactly in half. On one hand you have The Ghost of Deerhoof Past: the gritty, angular, bite-size pieces they've been doing forever, of which they've probably written thousands. Their 1998 single "Come See the Duck" gets wonderfully re-recorded, revealing itself as probably their most frenetic and one of their best songs. The quieter "Malalauma" and "Koneko Kitten" sound straight out of Halfbird, while "Byun" (also previously released on their live Bibidi Babidi Boo) is timelessly Deerhoofian, at home anywhere in their catalog.

Then there's The Ghost of Deerhoof Future, the trio "Green Cosmos," "Spiral Golden Town," and "Hot Mint Air Balloon." None of these songs could have been possible without Milk Man. Each one takes the lush scintillation lurking behind their last three albums (think "Top Tim Rubies," "Sealed With a Kiss," "New Sneakers") to a previously unthinkable territory, and Milk Man was Deerhoof's permission slip to go there.

It's a proven, scientific fact that Deerhoof are incapable of any shred of irony. But there was clearly a stronger sense of self-awareness with Milk Man. Songs like "Giga Dance" and "Dream Wanderer's Tune" aren't the product of fucking around in a basement with ProTools one afternoon. They're the mark not just of a more calculated ambition, but of a new musical stance, one that doesn't just deconstruct, but alchemizes.

And so it is with these three songs, the brightest and most vivid that Deerhoof have ever done by far, and hence, potentially hazardous to anyone who stopped listening after Reveille. The influences are too numerous to detect: samba, mariachi, Indian, video game, tea-house, ragtime -- all coexisting seamlessly in the house that Deerhoof built. You thought Apple O' was fluffy? Green Cosmos is a mountain of dancing pink gumdrops.

Words can't do justice to this sugary bombast, and even after you hear it, you'll remain incredulous until you've played it at least five times (and you will). But if you ever doubted that Deerhoof was capable of surprising you again, Green Cosmos will put those doubts to rest. Deerhoof will always shatter your expectations. Just not in the way you expect.

1. Come See the Duck
2. Green Cosmos
3. Malalauma
4. Spiral Golden Town
5. Hot Mint Air Balloon
6. Koneko Kitten
7. Byun