deekie

Amusia

Amusia is the debut album by lo-fi duo Deekie, arriving on heavyweight limited edition (300 copies) vinyl. The two Londoners making up the band's personnel are listed as Mr L and Neets, a pair who've been playing together for three years. At the start of their collaboration, apparently neither of them could play guitar and only one had ever actually written a song. There's something compellingly secretive and taciturn about these amiable, shambling recordings, something underlined by the whispery, unaffected vocals, occasional electronic jiggery pokery and pleasingly naive, elusively irregular guitar work (which is hardly surprising if these two have only been playing for three years, one supposes). "Amusia is a mishmash of styles and textures, from the stark folk of Unruly Truce to the finger-clicking jazz pop of Tribeca via the shoegazing synths of Close as Air and the found-sound instrumentalism of Oh! Absolutely. The songs may flit and fly but the sincerity and intimacy remains throughout. Album highlight Carpet was made with help from their mysterious friend and collaborator The Third Man, who pops up throughout Amusia sprinkling extra beats and off-kilter oddness wherever he goes. The track has a lolloping percussive push and a thrumming melancholic undertow. Amusia is a nocturnal album; sometimes very dark and close, sometimes dreamlike and distant. After dark is when people have the most fun and tell each other the truths they wouldn't during daylight. Amusia is like that... a collection of late nights that make up what they have."