Pitchfork

To an outside observer, Wham City might have seemed like just a Baltimore loft space, like any number of punk houses across the country where kids squat, scribble on the walls, and throw noise-rock shows. But it was more like a surrealist collective crossed with a dance party, something closer to the grand tradition of Jim Henson and Hugo Ball and Club MTV rather than Black Flag or even Lightning Bolt. Wham City's Dan Deacon is rightfully poised as the group's first member to make a real splash outside of Baltimore, and while his music can often sound like Jason Forrest's spastic breakcore if Forrest decided to start crooning in a helium-addled screech, "Wham City" is Deacon's big leap forward. In it you can hear hints of all sorts of hipster-approved hypnotic beats, from Neu!'s motorik to the minimalist repetitions of Steve Reich's mallets and Terry Riley's keyboards and Kraftwerk's synthesizers. But as a sing-along (or chant-along in this case, one of the catchiest of the year) it's also bursting with a joyous feeling that's familiar more from old Sesame Street records than Wire-friendly electronica. If robots made this, they're toy robots, and if this is noise, it's the friendliest noise imaginable. In conversation, Deacon mentioned that an abridged "single edit" of "Wham City" makes no sense, and I agree. Wham City is a feeling, and the 12-minute tribute-- which will be included on his forthcoming album-- is the only fitting response to a group of kids who bring joy to a city that often needs it more than most.

[single edit of a track from Spiderman of the Rings; due 05/08/07 on Carpark]