I was first made aware of Deerhunter’s existence a few months ago, when I saw them billed to play somewhere with Crystal Castles. My knee-jerk reaction was to note the proximity of the two names, make a few assumptions, and pigeonhole them together based entirely on my prior knowledge of the one. This was hardly fair to poor Deerhunter, so after thinking long and hard about what a terrible music nazi I’d become, I decided to give Microcastle a whirl.

On first listen, nothing much really grabbed my attention. It seemed well-produced, clean, and bland. A familiar formula of no frills guitar pop with mellow vocals and minimalist drumming. I guess I had been expecting something a bit more challenging, since I’d seen these guys referred to as “psych” and “experimental” in bios. There certainly didn’t seem to be anything particularly mind-altering or innovative about this album after one spin.

Upon second and third rotations, I began to notice a few details that had escaped me previously, like some nice moments on the title track where guitars and vocals mingle and become interchangeable parts of the same spacey wash. “Green Jacket” and “Calvary Scars” are also genuinely good; both are short, mellow interludes with lots of warbling reverb and drippy piano. “Activa” is probably the most interesting track; another brief, mellow moment with wailing vocals, nice string textures, and subtle noise layers.

“Twilight At Carbon Lake” is the only other track worth noting; it starts out with a slow, doo-wop motif that culminates in distortion. The rest of the songs seem to have a pretty consistent feel; thin, swirly guitars, drumming that almost never changes, and monotone, reverb-laden vocals. If they ditched some of the old-horse garage revival stuff and tried to do more with the ambient material they might fare better, but right now they just manage to sound a lot like Interpol, which makes me very uncomfortable and itchy.

Without really knowing much about the band’s influences, I would venture a guess that they’ve probably encountered a My Bloody Valentine album or two in the past. T-Rex, Swell Maps, and Warm Jets era Brian Eno also come to mind. Deerhunter are certainly not guilty of bad taste, and their songs are tightly-crafted, but I fear their sound is rather well-covered territory. There really doesn’t seem to be much evidence from Microcastle that sets them apart from shoegaze indie pop bands of yore. It’s not that it’s bad; it just isn’t that remarkable. Maybe rummaging through their earlier catalog might uncover something different, but I don’t think I’ll be bothering with that any time soon.

I almost feel a bit cheated; I was half-expecting, almost hoping to have my pre-conceived bias completely shattered by this record. I wanted to be humbled and forced to do penance for being so judgmental. Alas, no such luck.

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