Deekie - Amusia

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release
Soundclips

4...according to our Dave on Thu 22 Jul, 2010.

There are placid sounding records... then there's this. Deekie don't so much come roaring out of the traps. They come prancing out of the dimly lit bedroom of the depressed. It sounds pretty good though. It's mostly gently plucked guitars and hushed vocals. A mouse might consider auditioning for lead vocal duties next time as I reckon it could probably sing with greater gusto and volume. It is quite hypnotic sounding though. It has electronica leanings and lo-fi production values. The record comes in an alluring hand drawn sleeve. Each and every one of the tracks on this LP are maudlin classics. Quiet, unassuming and oddly moving, it reaches into the dark and pulls out shapes of light and wonder.

To play these clips you need to either update your browser (Norman Records recommends Google Chrome) or update your Flash plugin.

"It’s the ebb & flow, the highs and lows that make up what we have...."
People do funny things in relationships; sometimes they do clever things, surprising things, hurtful things or foolish things. Most of these have been written about in songs; Amusia is a collection of twelve more that carefully tread round secret thoughts, broken histories and brave futures.
Deekie is a band and also the obsession of two introverted London dwellers (Mr L and Neets) that have spent the last three years slowly getting better at what they do and making lots of discoveries and mistakes along the way. When they met neither of them had played guitar before, one of them hadn’t even written a song, but they learnt quickly. Amusia is the auditory diary of those times.
The album was made at their studio in Mr L’s front room, a dusty collection of wires and boxes that if stroked in the right way make interesting reverberations. If you listen closely you can also hear the cars and buses that roll outside the window, sometimes adding a warm throb or a blast of horn, as both of them sing the songs they scribbled late into the night.

Amusia is a mishmash of styles and textures, from the stark folk of Unruly Truce to the finger-clicking jazz pop of Tribeca via the shoegazing synths of Close as Air and the found-sound instrumentalism of Oh! Absolutely. The songs may flit and fly but the sincerity and intimacy remains throughout.

Album highlight Carpet was made with help from their mysterious friend and collaborator The Third Man, who pops up throughout Amusia sprinkling extra beats and off-kilter oddness wherever he goes. The track has a lolloping percussive push and a thrumming melancholic undertow. Download it free, right now!
Another friend, the grumpy one from fellow Kennington Recordings act TrebleCat, contributes to the album closer Ebb & Flow, the result of a (very) late night recording session.

Amusia is a nocturnal album; sometimes very dark and close, sometimes dreamlike and distant. After dark is when people have the most fun and tell each other the truths they wouldn’t during daylight. Amusia is like that... a collection of late nights that make up what they have.

Be the first to review this record. Best reviewer each month gets £10 off their next order!