Long before electronic wizard Dan Deacon released his commercial debut, 2007’s Spiderman Of The Rings, he’d gigged with a high-school ska band, earned a computer-music-composition degree from SUNY at Purchase, blew tuba for Langhorne Slim, shredded improv grindcore guitar with Rated R, started a chamber ensemble, co-founded Baltimore’s Wham City arts/music collective and released a series of experimental computer-music/sine-wave recordings. Deacon continues to pursue an eclectic musical course—his Carnegie Hall debut in March was part of a John Cage tribute—but his greatest successes have been in the electronic/dance scene. America (Domino), Deacon’s new album and the follow-up to 2009’s highly regarded Bromst, could cement his status as one of the country’s most adventurous and inspired electronic architects. Deacon will also be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new feature on him.
Deacon: I love landscape artwork. It’s so interestingly boring. For it to work it has to really be beautiful or it’s nothing. You can’t tolerate mediocre landscapes. (Well, I can’t.) What I like about Ryan‘s work—particularly his landscapes—is they look like photographs from a cartoon world, or even portraits of landscapes, because of the character that he brings to the work, and the context he places everything in. In other genres, his work maintains that quality—creating something that is so artificial and yet so lifelike.
More art after the jump.
