Destroyer – Bay of Pigs
I didn’t have much to say about the last Destroyer album, because it just didn’t really grab me, unfortunately. Hearing this it seems almost like the reason for that was simply that Dan Bejar might not have been pushing it enough for my taste, because it was a very restrained and, in my view, unremarkable record.
This, on the other hand, whilst barely even an EP, is much more interesting. It’s long, rather abstract, stitches what sound like fragments of songs together into a single quarter of an hour-long song, and is in general really quite weird and very, very good.
I still don’t entirely find myself understanding the pairing of the two songs, although perhaps the length of them is responsible for that, in that they both feel rather like sovereign entities, not necessarily requiring the other in order to be complete. Bay of Pigs itself is presumably about the bungled US invasion of Cuba which very nearly triggered nuclear war back in the sixites, although I’ll confess that the narrative of the song itself rather escapes me.
Anyhow, the song accelerates in vignettes, ratcheting itself up from the twinkling dreamscapes of the first few minutes, into some sort of somnabulent disco and finally a sharply-strummed crest around eleven minutes in. There it stops and seems to tumble downwards into the abyss of experimentalism again, with a building electronic rumble which allows the song to drift away back into the electronic twinkly with which it started. It’s a strange shift, at the end there, but it’s nice and it gives the song that completeness I hinted at earlier.
It hints at other Destroyer songs as well, interweaving the odd snippet here and there, and the second song, Ravers, is a re-working of one of their past tunes as well, previously called Rivers, I think.
So yes, it’s an odd release, this. A two-song EP clocking in at about twenty minutes in length and which really does bugger about something chronic. If Bejar is this good when he’s being weird I’d be tempted to say that he should throw off the reigns more often, stop being so disciplined, and just go for it, because I like this notably more than a lot of his more sensible, three-minute pop song-based work.
Erm, no preview song with this I’m afraid, because there are only two songs on the album.
MySpace | More mp3s | Buy (digital) direct from Merge Records
Just have to interrupt to point out that, not only do I not live in Poughkeepsie, but I’ve actually never even been to Poughkeepsie.
OK, sending it back to you in Aberdeen now.
This is bound to be based around a reference I simply do not get.
Your suggestion in the Georgie Pringle thread that I lived in Poughkeepsie, perhaps.
Ahem. Nothing to do with me, surely.
This would have been during the pain-killer blackout period.
Anyway, shall we talk about Destroyer? I, for one, do not quite get the cultdom surrounding Dan Bejar and his various projects.
I can imagine. He is all over the internets like a Britney sex tape. Some of it is pretty bland stuff too – the last album was really weak, I thought – but this has a lot more to it, I think. Have you heard it?
Followed MySpace link – only one song available. It was pleasant enough. I was about to bail on it 2/3 through but then some nice strings came in and a cool guitar sound which convinced me to stay ’til the end. But not enough to make me seek our more, given my previous listening experiences and such.
Am I missing out? The guy’s just never “grabbed” me, if you know what I mean. With so much music out there, you kind of need that from an artist. Show me some magic, even the tiniest flash of it, and I’ll come back for more…
Hold on… you should just send people to the Merge link. They’re streaming both tracks in their entirety.
And you know what? They’re good! Damn you, Bejar.
Erm, Dev, you see that link above with the words Merge Records in it…?
I agree with you in general though, apart from the one song European Oils I’ve never felt really compelled to listen to his stuff. This however, whilst not absolutely amaaaaazing, is nevertheless really good.
I’m glad we had this talk, Matthew.
I cannot abide Dan Bejar’s voice. I just can’t. It makes me want to shit and cut myself at the same time.
I do not get a twitch in my winkie over Destroyer.
I feel it’s my duty as Annoying Destroyer Advocate to step in and register my love for this EP and Bejar in general. I was pretty bemused by him in the beginning – for a long time he was just that guy who stumbled in and sort of ruined New Pornographers songs, then suddenly he became the complete opposite. Rubies is definitely worth some time..