Influences: Animal Collective, Aphex Twin, Björk, Blur, Boards of Canada, Boredoms, Can, David Bowie, Death Grips, Disco Inferno, DJ Shadow, Gorillaz, J Dilla, LCD Soundsystem, Massive Attack, MGMT, My Bloody Valentine, Pink Floyd, Primal Scream, Radiohead, Slint, Spiritualized, Stereolab, Sweet Trip, Tame Impala, Ween
Deepform is a shoegaze producer from the UK, born in February 2004 and beginning music in late 2020.
Their sound takes influence from a wide variety of genres, including (aside from shoegaze) post-rock, post-punk, krautrock, trip hop, dub, sound collage, noise rock, and industrial music.
Their discography thus far:
- Albums
- Faust (2021)
- Deepform and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day (2022)
- EPs
- Aviary (2021)
- Glove Puppets (2021)
- 2 (2022)
- Common People (2022)
Tropes applying to their music
- all lowercase letters: Their releases from "Eugene" and onward.
- Bookends: Faust begins and ends with versions of "The Revelations", one as its own track and one as a dark reprise hidden in "Mammouth"'s length.
- Likewise, "Eugene" opens Common People, and a distorted ambient version appears in "Alfred"'s length.
- B-Side: Every single (other than "Extremes") has one.
- Cover Version: Covers of "Jenny Ondioline" and "Tomorrow Is Already Here" by Stereolab, and "Stuka" by Primal Scream, are up on their YouTube channel.
- Epic Rocking: "The Revelations", "Eventide", "Functionality" and "Gaile" are all 6 minutes long.
- The cover of Stereolab's "Tomorrow Is Already Here" is 8 minutes long. "Total Control", one of "Supercotton"s b-sides, also runs for 8 minutes.
- "Scorpio"s album version is 12 minutes long. "Control Flow" nears this at a runtime of 5:50, and "Feed the Worm" technically qualifies at 6:48 but is actually just 4 minutes 40 seconds long with a 2-minute Hidden Track.
- Everything Is an Instrument: Deepform revealed in a tumblr post that they made the drums for "Supercotton" by tapping on things around their desk and running the resulting sounds through distortion.
- Fading into the Next Song: The final three tracks on Faust, and all of their EPs and albums released since.
- Hidden Track:
- Faust features a reprise of "The Revelations" in "Mammouth"'s length.
- "The Riddle" from Glove Puppets has an extended one taking up much of its second half. A full 4-min version of this is present on the streaming versions of the EP, as well as a bonus track on Bandcamp.
- Every track on Common People, excluding "Gaile", also has one of these.
- "Feed the Worm" features a Berlin School coda.
- Genre Roulette: Much of Faust is made up of post-rock and ambient/dream pop, but also features elements of slowcore ("The Revelations"), illbient and trip hop ("Roundabout", "Phantom"), more standard hip hop ("Severed Head") progressive electronic ("Uppercuts", "Extremes"), noise rock ("The Beast"), and even just noise ("Quick Sand", "Mammouth")
- Genre Throwback: Deepform and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day's description describes it as a "love letter" to post-punk, no wave, krautrock, and berlin school.
- Instrumentals: Most of their work, aside from the occasional spoken word sample.
- In the Style of: "Vindicator" is meant to be reminiscent of post-rock artists like Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
- Longest Song Goes Last:
- Aviary ends with "Sand Dance" (5:10).
- Glove Puppets ends with "Functionality" (6:30).
- Miniscule Rocking: "Cold in the City" and "Vignette" barely last 2 minutes.
- The Not-Remix: In September 2022, Deepform would redo the Common People EP with better mixing and small changes in the arrangements of some tracks.
- Sampling:
- Faust features a heavy usage of Alan Tew pieces, mainly in the more collagic tracks like "Quick Sand" and "Mammouth".
- The synth drones from "Fortuita in MMXXII" and "Vignette" are both from "Ready Lets Go" by Boards of Canada.
- Sensory Abuse:
- "The Beast" features heavy distortion over the whole track.
- As "Eventide" reaches its end, layers of delay and reverb pile onto the song and cause it to transition into a noisy, echoing mess. The song's second section also fades into distorted noise before going back to normal.
- Song Style Shift: "Scorpio" starts out as a piano piece in its first minute, before shifting to Berlin School/progressive electronic, before shifting into NEU!-style krautrock 4 minutes in.
- Spoken Word in Music:
- "Phantom" opens on someone explaining how to use a gun, with the ensuing gunshot leading into the song itself.
- "Fives and Tens" features a voice announcing a store closing in the middle of the song... said backwards and played in reverse to uncanny, alien effect.
- "Alfred"'s opening and interlude section features a speech followed up by a buried "beat their asses".
- "Total Control" prominently samples a numbers station.
- Surreal Music Video: The music videos for "Supercotton" and "Dependency" are made from looped clips of PSAs and old footage of Blackpool respectively. The latter, in particular, overlays them on top of flashing lights and colours to disorienting effect.
- Uncommon Time:
- "Calvin" features multiple time signature changes, starting in 10/4 and then shifting into 14/4 (4+4+4+2), and switching between 4/4 and 5/4 in its bridge section.
- "Static Cloud"'s c-section/bridge switches between 5/4 and 6/4 constantly.
- Most of Deepform and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day is in uncommon time - "Scorpio" is in 6/4, "SPS" is in 7/4, "Mud Eater" is mostly in 10/4 with a chorus featuring 3 bars of 4/4 and a bar of 5/4, "Control Flow" is entirely in 10/4, and "Feed the Worm" features two polyrhythms constantly toggling between 4/4, 5/4, and 6/4.
- "Insider" features a 5/4 chorus and 6/4 verses and bridges.
- "Entertainment" is largely in 7/4 with brief moments in 6/4 (the transition from the intro into the main song) and 4/4 (the choruses, also the last 2 bars of the intro-transition)
- "Attenzione" is mostly in 5/4, with every fourth bar in its verses switching time signatures briefly. Its outro is also in 4/4, and features a bassline that starts in 4/4 before becoming a 15/8 polymeter.
