DEASTRO
Moondagger (Ghostly International)
Just when it seemed that electronic pop had reached the outer limits
of psychedelia, one Midwestern musician has taken things even farther:
He's going intergalactic. (No, really -- as of this writing, his MySpace
page has him scheduled to play a January show at Gula Mons, a volcano on
western Venus.) Deastro is Randolph Chabot, a bespectacled 22-year-old
Michiganian with an uncanny ability to compose otherworldly,
synth-fueled melodies. And Moondagger is his major-label debut, a
diabolically catchy album that is Detroit's answer to MGMT's Time to
Pretend and the Russian Futurists' Me, Myself and Rye. Not a single
track on Moondagger goes to waste; alpha songs "Parallelogram" and
"Greens, Grays, and Nordics" are surefire radio fodder, while mellower
tunes like "Toxic Crusaders" and "Kurgan Wave Number One" are works of
subtle pop genius. If this isn't one of the best indie albums of the
summer, this reviewer will eat his hat -- I mean, space helmet.
Alex Littlefield
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