Review Summary: This album will rock any dance floor.
The New Deal fired off a great album with Gone Gone Gone, providing listening with myriad rhythms and melodies that would make a dance crowd go crazy. Each track brings a lot of pep to the speakers and none of the songs leave the listener wanting more. This review will touch on each song, commenting on their strengths and weakness, if there are any to this incredible jamtronica album.
In the intro it become apparent that the New Deal loves a lot of voice modulation and looping of voice sequences. There are many sounds that have been manipulated out of their original context keeping the various electronic sounds from becoming redundant or boring.
I Feel Love also features heavy voice modulation, changing up a very repetitive “I feel love” lyric making it much more interesting throughout the peace. Basically there are only three words in the song but they keep it fresh by changing the techno beats in the background and the modulated synth in the background frequently.
Gone Gone Gone is by far the most compelling, interesting, and catchy song on the album, and my favorite. The very catchy techno riffs coming from a heavily modulated synth and guitar in the background keep the listener guessing. The bridge is very unique, changing the beat significantly from the original riff, making the middle section much smoother than the chaotic, yet very pleasant A section of the track. The bridge smoothly transitions into a jam section and then flawlessly transitions back to the A section after a short section with no discernable meter.
Don’t Blame Yourself is a much smoother song than the previous three, giving the listener a nice change of peace. Many more lyrics than the other tracks on the album, featuring Feist. The woman’s voice is very soothing compared to the distorted lyrics in I Feel Love.
Moment #1 reprises many of the impressive beats in Gone Gone Gone but in a much more melodic way. It never climaxes as much as Gone Gone Gone but provides for a very unique listening experience. Even though this track simply plays off melodies and rhythms that the listener has already heard, the song is surprisingly distinctive.
Homewrecker is a very groovy piece, once again changing the style and mood of the album drastically and just at the right time. After listening to the previous five tracks, the groove in this track really can really chill the listener out. There are a lot of neat keyboard riffs that keep the listener guessing.
A Little While also includes many more lyrics that break up the synthesized melodies in a terrific way. The piece emits a very laid back feel because of the smooth and undulating lyrics but keeps the listener’s attention with a very different background rhythm full of energy and complex drum fills.
Episode 7 reverts back to the very hyped jamtronica sounds that would pump up any audience at a night club. Episode 7, featuring much more dissonance than any other song on the album. The dissonance strays away from the very full and satisfying chords in the earlier songs but still allows for a catchy dance beat to take over the listener.
Moment #2 features many similar transitions that were heard in Moment #1. The very relaxed track is a nice seg-way to relax the listener after the last two upbeat tracks, especially Episode 7 which features an exhausting dance rhythm.
VL Tone gives a much more laid back feel, similar to a Sublime with much more electronic modulation and without the presence of lyrics. There are very heavy beats on two and four throughout the peace with tends to help the laid back feeling that the song gives the listener.
Home is a very relaxed track with a variety of rhythms and melodies that smoothly transition. The transitions are noted with heavily modulated voice samples and each section varies significantly from the previous one.
A Little While Longer maintains the relaxed feel of Home but integrates a much more upbeat background rhythm using synthesized drum rhythms and heavily modulated guitar and synthesizer rhythms. This track has a very jazzy feel much like the rest of the album.
Senza Te is the most ambient song on the album and is a nice closer to the energetic and jamtronica sounds that were heard throughout all of the tracks. The ambient tones meld nicely with each other and simply have to relax as they finish up the epic album put out by a very versatile artist.
The New Deal would break down any dance party with their interesting yet peepy and energietic tracks, especially Gone Gone Gone and VL Tone. Overall the album was great and I never found myself getting bored with the all too common repetitive synthesizer beats. There are a lot of interesting samples that the band uses to change up their style throughout the album. Taking these samples out of their original context provides a very unique texture and feel to each song. Each track brings something very different to the table and incorporates many modulation and sythnesis technique crucial to making interesting and catchy technosonic music.
