Sometimes it is difficult to come up with a succinct, yet wry, description of band’s sound and, indeed, such was the problem with Deer and their EP “Portraits” for, as a band, they don’t quite fit into any of the currently trendy musical genres.
If you were to take “Wild Eyes” as representative of the Deer sound then they could well be described as harmonious vocals over a relentless and claustrophobic beat as if the theatre had taken over the dancefloor. However, the other three songs on this EP lean more towards the darker, bleaker end of the synth pop spectrum although Deer are less worshippers of the retro sound than manipulators of the lo-fi limitations that once came with a nascent analogue technology. Some might even say that this approach highlights, through sound, the oppression that is the sign of our times with the very discontinuities of life reflected in the fragmented lyrics that are packaged with metaphor and stylised posturing.
So, in their deliberately and insolently lo-fi way, Deer - Adriana Falcón and Miguel Bastid – may just have provided us with a short sharp shock soundtrack to urban disconnection with the ghost in their machine haunting them, and us, each and every step of the way.