For fans of Still House Plants, Cardiacs, Lightning Bolt, early British post rock, and the unexpected tragedies of miscommunication, Divine Schism by Deerhoof exposes some of our most deeply held yet generally invisible trauma, using a diverse range of influences to play all the parts in a dramatic dialogue. Focusing on the interaction between a parent and child, Deerhoof employs auxiliary percussion and airy vocals to generate images of childhood innocence. From this innocence stems this child’s inability to locate and express their deepest needs, most of which center on their parent’s consistent inability to properly pay attention to them, a lack which induces all manner of self-destructive tendencies. Through the ebb and flow of erratic rhythmic shifts and dense harmonic tension, we see the broken relationships from both angles, a vicious cycle which only encourages further challenges as time goes on. By the time disaster strikes, the composition runs off the rails, striking deep at the most incomprehensible struggles in our own subconscious as the story crosses over into our real lives.
