Deptford Goth // Life After Defo

Deptford Goth? Why, if that isn’t one of the best pop singer names of all time! Daniel Woolhouse describes his music as, “sitting somewhere between real and synthetic”, but he is neither from Deptford nor a goth. Just a young bearded chap who started off recording stuff on a 4 track tape player and messing around with it from a young age. Life after Defo is his album of 11 tracks, all of which clock in at around 5 minutes long each, some going up to 8 minutes. It’s Thom Yorke at his most ethereal, The XX at their most human, James Blake at his most lonely. Mr D Goth sounds like a single flower in a vat of nothing. Like the quiet of a modern art gallery. He sings about love, belonging, heartache, human feelings. The rhythms are syncopated and subtle if there at all; mostly it is very floaty, very minimal, rather repetitious, slightly more upbeat at times, like in Union and Years. He makes music where every single second of sound counts, every instrument or noise carefully chosen, rather like writing an orchestral score. It’s a very tightly woven soundscape and sounds very of the moment and modern, with even a few hints of 80’s ballads in there. I like it. I do. It’s very clever and beautiful and well made. But for me it’s a little too much the same throughout; I could do with a few more changes in mood and tone in the album as a whole. This must be marvellous to see live, though you’d want it seated. 7/10 Lizz